Experimental Work in United States. 



[OCT, 



which about 6i million copies were distributed. The lists of 

 persons who receive these publications regularly now contain 

 731,000 names. The issue of these bulletins is restricted by 

 want of funds, but the summaries which appear in the Depart- 

 ment's publications bring them to the notice of many persons 

 who would not otherwise be reached. 



Practical Demonstrations, — Practical trials and demonstrations 

 are becoming a somewhat more prominent feature, and both the 

 Department and the stations have undertaken work such as 

 spraying potatoes and orchards, treatment of seed for smut, 

 alkali reclamation, irrigation, cold curing of cheese, &c., in 

 localities where such matters seemed specially applicable. 



■Farmers' Institutes. ■ — This means of education has been 

 described as the Adult .Farmers' School. They are meetings 

 at; which lectures are given and subjects discussed, and are held 

 sometimes for one day, once a month, and sometimes at longer 

 intervals for two and occasionally for four or six days. They 

 date from early in the seventies, and are now an important 

 factor in American agricultural life. They are held in nearly 

 all the States, and in 1903 the attendance was about 900,000. 

 'It will easily be understood that they afford a valuable means of 

 instructing farmers in improved methods and practices, and of 

 bringing the results of the work of the stations home to them. 

 In twenty- nine States the management is entirely in the hands 

 of the colleges and stations, and in the others the station officers 

 take a prominent part. There is a great demand for these 

 men as lecturers. The Department has not taken much action 

 in this direction, but a considerable number of officials have 

 been sent to meetings in response to special requests. 



A novel form of instruction which has been adopted in Iowa 

 since 1904 was the employment of a special train from which 

 lectures were given by experts for the purpose of emphasizing 

 to farmers along the route the importance of seed selection 

 in growing corn, wheat, ana potatoes, and also for instruction 

 in dairying. In 1905 this train covered 7,855 miles during 

 57 days, stopping at about ten different places each day, two 

 lectures being delivered at each place. The audiences are 

 estimated as numbering over 127,000, or an average attend- 

 ance of no at each lecture 



