FARMERS ' INSTITUTE AND EXTENSION WORK, 1913. 15 



The experiment stations and the demonstration farms are to Berve for the instruction 

 of the people by example and also for the propagation and dissemination by sale of the 

 best varieties of seeds and tested plants. They are to conduct researches and experi- 

 ments in plant and animal production, cultivation, fertilizers, and all farm and garden 

 operations. These demonstration farms are by example also to teach economy and 

 show how to check the many sources of waste and avoid unprofitable practices. They 

 are to keep at the front in agricultural progress and set an example not in a theoretical 

 but in a practical manner for the small as well as the large farmer by demonstrating the 

 method of producing the largest net revenue in each case. 



Each station and demonstration farm is located so as to represent the average con- 

 dition of the different soils, climatic and other conditions in the several regions, and 

 at the same time be easy of access to visitors and have at least some irrigation waters, 

 in order to conduct the vegetable garden and nurseries. The current farm practices 

 of each region are followed, and improvements, as a result of experiments in the experi- 

 ment stations, joined to each demonstration farm, will be made gradually each year 

 in order that no mistakes may be made and bad examples set. The land for these 

 farms is rented for a long term of years with privilege of purchase, and each farm does 

 not exceed 600 acres except in the dry farming region, where it may include 1,200 

 acres. 



The purely experimental portion of the farm is conducted independently of the 

 demonstration portion and is not expected to be self-supporting. Each demonstration 

 or model farm is self-supporting and all improvements are made out of its income. The 

 Government, however, contributes the original funds with which first to stock and 

 equip each experiment station and demonstration farm and makes an annual grant 

 for the experimental work which is connected with each model farm and which, of 

 necessity, can not be expected to be self-supporting. 



In order that there may be coordination, harmony, and systematic effort a director, 

 whose salary is paid by the Government, has general charge of all the experiment 

 stations and demonstration farms, and each station has a chief, whose salary is paid 

 out of the annual grant to the experiment stations, while each demonstration farm 

 likewise has a subdirector. The commission also employs scientists to conduct the 

 expert scientific work of the stations, and expert teachers have charge of the instruc- 

 tional work at the demonstration farms. 



The supreme object of all the experiment stations and demonstration or model farm 

 work is the practical instruction of farmers in better and improved farm practices. 

 The immediate practical instruction of those now actually engaged in farming is re- 

 garded as most important since it reflects at once and directly on the production of the 

 country, and the demonstration by the model farm method is deemed the quickest 

 and surest method of accomplishing this end. Accordingly, farmers' meetings are held 

 at frequent intervals at the model farms, and practical instruction by demonstration - 

 is given to those in attendance. No theoretical instruction is attempted, and nothing 

 not fully proven and demonstrated is given. The model farm thus becomes a per- 

 manent agricultural exposition and demonstration school where the farmers go to see 

 the things they are to learn, and to discuss them in the fields as they are conducted 

 about the farm. After certain improved practices have become fully and surely 

 demonstrated at the model farm, small fields on many individual farms are used to dis- 

 seminate still further the information by practical demonstration under the direction 

 of the central farm, but the entire actual work is there done by the farmer himself. 



During the lax or dormant season farmers' meetings are held throughout the country 

 in order to interest the farmers in the demonstration farms and to sell improved seeds, 

 plants, and animals from the model farms. 



Belgium. — Meetings or conferences for the instruction along agricultural lines of 

 adults actually engaged in agriculture have been held for a number of years in various 

 villages in Belgium by the agricultural supervisors, agricultural engineers, professors 

 of agriculture, and others holding diplomas permitting them to give such instruction. 



