UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



» BULLETIN No. 269 



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Contribution from the Office of Experiment Stations 

 A. C. TRUE, Director 



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Washington, D. C. 



July 31, 1915. 



FARMERS' INSTITUTE WORK IN THE UNITED 

 STATES IN 1914, AND NOTES ON AGRICULTURAL 

 EXTENSION WORK IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



By J. M. Stedman, Farmers' 1 Institute Specialist. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



General status 2 



State farmers' institute reports 3 



Agricultural extension work in for- 

 eign countries 7 



Officials in charge of farmers' in- 

 stitutes in the United States- 



Statistics of farmers' institutes in 

 United States in 1914 



Page. 



16 



INTRODUCTION. 



In 1902 the United States Department of Agriculture gathered and 

 compiled the first statistics regarding farmers' institute work in the 

 United States and each succeeding year it has published a report of 

 the Farmers' Institute Specialist showing the extent and progress of 

 this movement. A review of these reports shows a continuous and 

 steady growth in the number of institutes held each year and also in 

 the attendance at the meetings. Until recently, the farmers' insti- 

 tute was the great and for 25 years practically the only organized 

 movement for carrying on agricultural extension work. In the ma- 

 jority of States this work was originally under the direct control of 

 the State departments of agriculture, but in other instances it was 

 rested in the agricultural colleges. In either case the agricultural 

 colleges were active in contributing to its support and have always 

 furnished a large proportion of the institute lecturers. A few years 

 ago (lie agricultural colleges began to devote an increasing amount 

 of attention to farmers' institutes, and, later, to other phases of agri- 

 cultural extension, and thus gradually become a major factor in the 

 organized agricultural extension movement carried on by agencies 

 other than the United States Department of Agriculture. 



N'.n.. 'ruin pniiilc'itloii is ci Interest to I'mei Institutes and other agricultural ex- 

 tension workers In tbe Doited States and Canada. 

 96281* BulL269— 16 1 



