farmers' INSTITUTE WORK IN 1914. 13 



The chairs of instruction are usually provided with professional agricultural 

 teachers having charge of the itinerant instruction in the adjoining communes. 

 About SO communes are assigned, on the average, to one itinerant teacher. 



The object of itinerant instruction is to disseminate agricultural knowledge 

 through immediate contact with the rural population by holding lectures and 

 conferences. 



The itinerant teachers are also bureaus of information on all agricultural 

 questions. 



The number of itinerant chairs of instruction is 94, that of the sections 86. 



The total expenses for itinerant instruction in 1910 amounted to $50,000. 



Roumania. — In Roumania x the itinerant agricultural teacher is usually a 

 national-school teacher with practical agricultural knowledge, besides a knowl- 

 edge of gardening and orcharding. He is allowed a seven months' furlough 

 yearly, during which time he is obliged to visit a certain number of rural 

 national schools which have school gardens or experimental fields. During 

 his stay at the school the teachers and the advanced pupils work one or two 

 days under his superintendence and according to his direction. After the itin- 

 erant teacher has visited all the schools in the district assigned to him, he goes 

 back to the first one to assist in a new line of work. He controls the results 

 obtained and records his observations in an inspection book. In this way a 

 single itinerant teacher can give practical agricultural instruction to 10 or 12 

 schools, from which not only the schools but the teachers derive advantage. 



Bavaeia. — In Bavaria 2 itinerant instruction has been introduced, and it is 

 primarily the duty of the royal agricultural teachers appointed as directors and 

 head teachers in the winter agricultural schools to supervise and further it. 

 By establishing winter schools and filling the position of directors with properly 

 trained permanent teachers competent persons have been provided, who are 

 better able to supervise itinerant instruction. There are now in Bavaria 40 

 agricultural itinerant teachers, highly qualified in the subject of agriculture. 

 With a small circuit it is possible for the itinerant teacher to get in close touch 

 with the farmers of the district, and not simply to be present sporadically 

 in this and that place for the purpose of delivering a one-hour lecture. Lec- 

 turing is only a small part of the work of the itinerant teachers. Their principal 

 duty is to travel regularly over their districts, remain in a community long 

 enough to obtain definite information, enter into agreement with the authorities, 

 suggest improvements, undertake experiments, and aid those interested by 

 personal :idvice. 



The itinerant teachers keep in close touch with practical fertilizer and culti- 

 vation experiments on the farmers' fields, in order to demonstrate the advantages 

 of proper fertilization, the selection of good seed, the adaptability of certain 

 kinds of plants to regions in question, and to encourage imitation; in the same 

 way new machines and tools are introduced. 



Courses of considerable duration — perhaps three to eight days — do more good 

 than lectures, and greal Importance is attached to them. Such courses are given 

 for <-\i-ry branch of fanning, and have hitherto been principally organized and 

 directed l>y associations. In Order thai the work of the societies may he mad" as 

 practical as possible in all regions, the district officers encourage the holding of 

 housekeeping courses. 



Bosnia awd Hebzegovina.— In Bosnia and Herzegovina' itinerant teachers 

 lra\e] over the entire agricultural districts, Chiefly for the purpose Of giving 



i Land n. Vontw. [Jnterrlclits-Zttr., is (1004), No, •"• 4, pp. 212, 218. 

 'Land m. Poratw. Dnterrlchts-ZtK., 18 (1904), No. 8 t. pp, 204, 205. 

 ■ Land a. Fowtw. Dnterrlcbl Zt»., '-'•"> (1911), No. I, pp. 119-121. 



