National and Educational Ijtterests. 



in Harper's Magazine, April, 1888, said: 'Wisconsin is working out its 

 educational ideas on an intelligent system, and one that may be expected to 

 demonstrate the full value of the popular method — I mean a more intimate 

 connection of the university with the life of the people than exists elsewhere. 



* * * The distinguishing thing, however, about the State University is its 

 vital connection with the farmers' and agricultural interests. * * * I 

 know of no other state where a like system of popular instruction on a vital 

 and universal interest of the state, directed by the highest educational au- 

 thority, is so perfectly organized and carried on with such unity of purpose 

 and detail of administration no other in which the farmer is brought system- 

 atically into such direct relations to the university.' Farmers' institutes also 

 flourish in the state of Indiana, where they may be found in every county 

 and in close relations with Purdue University, the agricultural college of the 

 state. Professor Jenks says : ' Part of the lectures given in these institutes 

 are by the university professors, and are, of course, of a thoroughly scientific 

 and scholarly nature.' " 



The institutes are now undergoing a transformation. Far- 

 mers are constantly asking for more specific instruction, and 

 courses of technical lectures upon a series of intimately related 

 topics are in demand. This demand has given rise to itinerant Evolution 

 u dairy schools " and similar organizations in various states. 9 {t J?^. 



* y . . 11-1 r institutes. 



The institute bureaus 111 some cases publish a roster of 

 speakers, with announcement of their subjects, and from 

 these lists the different localities select their lecturers. The 

 Pennsylvania Board of Agriculture, for instance, publishes 

 this year a list of 55 speakers who treat upon nearly every 

 subject of rural economy and practice. 



The demand for definite and consecutive instruction in 

 agriculture has brought forward a number of schemes looking 

 to the intensification and extension of the institute system. 

 The following plan by Professor H. H. Wing of Cornell Uni- 

 versity will commend itself to the reader : * 



"The system of farmers' institutes that has been maintained for some 

 time in New York state has undoubtedly done more than any other single 

 thing toward lifting up and enlightening the general mass of farmers, and ad- 

 vancing the interests of agriculture as a whole. These institutes are now in 

 the full tide of their usefulness, and in all probability will continue the same Agricul- 

 good work for many years to come ; but it has occurred to me that the time tura l 

 is at hand when they should be supplemented by instruction that should |cheme° n 

 continue over a longer time, that should be more detailed, definite and spe- 

 cific in character, and therefore make a more lasting impression upon the 

 minds of the learners. It seems to me that the demand for such instruction 

 is greater in those places where the institutes have been of most effect than 

 elsewhere, and that a scheme something like the following could be quite 

 easily carried out and would lead to far-reaching and lasting benefits : 



* Rural New-Yorker, li. 3s. 



