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Annals of Horticulture. 



stitution in this country to carry instruction to farmers who 

 are not students in the college. And this recalls the fact that 

 Yxtensforf f armers ' institute movement is essentially university ex- 

 tension,* inasmuch as the greater number of the institutes are 

 held under the auspices of the agricultural colleges. The 

 vital connection which exists between these colleges and the 

 institutes, may be learned from a study of the statistics pre- 

 sented on the following pages ; and it may also be said that 

 even in those states in which this official and legal connection 

 does not exist, the teachers in the colleges are expected to iden- 

 tify themselves with the institute work. The institute move- 

 ment lacks much of the definiteness of specific university ex- 

 tension, however, but the ultimate aims of the two are the 

 same, and writers upon university extension are recognizing 

 this fact. The following excerpt from a paper upon "Uni- 

 versity Extension and its Leaders," by Professor Herbert B. 

 Adams, of Johns Hopkins University, in Review of Reviews 

 for July, 1891, indicates the position which the farmers' insti- 

 tute movement holds in the minds of educators : 



' ' Of great importance for the higher education of the farming population 

 of this country are the so-called farmers' clubs and institutes, which have in- 

 creased and multiplied since the agricultural college grant of 1862. Professors 

 S. W. Johnson and Brewer, of New Haven, rendered early and conspicuous 

 service as lectures to the farmers' institutes of Connecticut. Like mechanics' 

 and teachers' institutes, these voluntary associations of American farmers 

 are likely to lead ultimately, under right management, to a much higher 

 appreciation of the possibilities of the agrarian situation than now obtains, 

 and also to a clearer conception of civic duty. It is by the cordial alliance 

 of the higher educational forces of each state with the industrial and agri- 

 cultural, that the best interests of the commonwealth can be subserved. 

 ind S educa S ^ ne °^ ^ e most interesting types of farmers' institutes may be found in Wis- 

 tion" consin, where over 60 of these organizations met last year for two days each, 

 at convenient centers in different parts of the state. University professors 

 and scientific experts are in the habit of giving familiar talks at these farmers' 

 institutes, and of promoting popular education as well as scientific agricul- 

 ture. Farmers come to these meetings with their wives and children. 

 School-teachers and young people often contribute to the literary exercises. 

 The Wisconsin State University, under the wise and practical guidance of 

 Professor Chamberlin, has endeavored to cooperate in every possible way 

 with the higher educational interests of the farming population, who have 

 generously responded this year by an extra grant of $50,000 to the university. 

 Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, in his Studies of the Great West, published 



*" University extension means university education for the whole nation, organized 

 upon itinerant lines." In any community classes may be organized to which a teacher 

 from the college or university gives instruction, with occasional examinations. 



