50 



Another typical farmers' institute organisation is that of the 

 State of Illinois, which is organised under a special Act of the 

 State Legislature and is a public corporation of the State. 

 It consists of three delegates from each county of the State, 

 elected annually at the farmers' institute meetings of the county, 

 and is managed by a Board of Trustees consisting of the State 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction and other State authori- 

 ties connected with the teaching of agriculture, as well as by 

 delegates elected from each Congressional district. The State 

 Superintendent of Farmers' Institutes, who is one of the officers 

 appointed by the Board, is required by the Act to have general 

 supervision of institute work, to make recommendations as to 

 the line of work to be followed, to visit institute and district 

 conferences, to be responsible for the publication of an annual 

 report, and to arrange its contents, to be librarian of the 

 Institute Free Libraries, and to propose lists of books for pur- 

 chase by them, and to make a detailed annual report to the 

 Board of his acts and doings during the year, as well as any other 

 reports that the Board may require. 



During the year 1904-05, 100 institute meetings were held in 

 Illinois, 50 being two day meetings, while 50 occupied three days 

 •or more. There were 114 lecturers on the staff, of which 28 

 belonged to the Agricultural College and Experiment Station 

 staff. The total attendance was 69,759. An institute was held 

 in every county of the State, and the total cost amounted to 

 about £3,851. The local organisations elect their own officers 

 and formulate their own rules, and are permitted to select their 

 own speakers and to choose such topics for discussion as they 

 believe will be of interest to their respective localities. 



The Illinois Farmers' Institute is authorised to award one free 

 scholarship in the College of Agriculture, tenable for two years> 

 for each county in the State, and one for each congressional 

 district of Chicago. 



Free circulating libraries are distributed among the several 

 county institutes ; 51 of these libraries have been equipped 

 and sent out, containing each about 50 volumes. 



A new feature of the work in Illinois has been the combination 

 of teachers and farmers' institutes. The teaching of agriculture 

 in the public schools and the consolidation of rural schools were 

 discussed at every institute throughout the State, 



