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through «>ur close contact with the institute lecturer.-, to help i" bring them into 
closer relations to the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and in this way 
ultimately to build up a force of men throughout the country who will be able to 
carry the great burden of the institute work. 
Under present conditions, as you know, the officers of the agricultural colleges and 
experiment stations are not only greatly interested in the farmers' institute-, but are 
carrying a heavy burden of work in connection with them; and in a good many 
individual instances this burden is already so heavy that we have felt that it has 
interfered to a certain extent with their work as teachers and invest igators in con- 
nection with the colleges and stations. 
Now, it is obvious that under present conditions the college and station officers must 
to a considerable extent take the leadership in this institute movement, and they 
must make some sacrifices in order to help on this great movement for the education 
of the masses of our fanners. At the same time W6 ought to look forward to the day 
when we shall have a thoroughly equipped body of institute lecturers, who, while 
they are in close touch with the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, will be 
able to relieve the teachers in the colleges and the investigators in the stations from 
any considerable burden of institute work. 
There is no change in the general policy of the Department with regard to this 
matter. We still hold that it is the primary and chief business of the station officers 
to investigate and of the college officers to teach in the colleges, and that they should 
help the institutes only so far as may he necessary under present conditions to get 
this movement on a right basis and to keep them in touch with the actual problems 
with which our farmers have to deal. 
Under the legislation regarding farmers' institutes as related to the Department, 
one of our speeial duties is to aid in the dissemination of the results of the work of 
the Department and the stations among the farmers; and to this we are giving special 
attention. On the part of the Department the effort will he made to bring the officers 
of the Department in its different hranches in closer touch with the institutes by 
having those offieers go out more than they have been accustomed to do in the past 
to speak at the institutes in different parts of the country. 
Of course it would not be possible, if it were desirable, for the Department officers 
to speak at the institutes generally, but it is our hope that in the "round-up " insti- 
tutes, as they are called, and in other meetings where representative men are gathered 
together from a considerable region, the Department may be represented hereafter 
more frequently than it has been in the past. 
To take immediate charge of this work in the Office of Experiment Stations, Prof. 
John Hamilton, formerly in charge of the department of agriculture of the State of 
Pennsylvania, has been appointed and has already entered on the service. It is 
his desire, as well as our own, that the college and station men here and generally 
in the States represented here should give him such suggestions regarding this work 
and such aid as they can. He would like to come in touch with them personally 
and through correspondence as much as possible. So I hope that during this con- 
vention and at other times you will get acquainted with him and come to understand 
the work he is trying to do in this line. 
I do not want to close this imperfect statement regarding our efforts in this direc- 
tion without trying to impress on you more fully the greatness and importance of 
this farmers' institute enterprise. I have not realized it myself until recently. 
The work undoubtedly has grown in importance and in strength quite rapidly in 
very recent years. When we consider that these institutes are practically held 
annually in every county of the United States and that they are attended in the 
aggregate by something like a million people who are engaged in the farming busi- 
ness, I think we can see that here is a force which, if it can be properly organ- 
ized, will be of tremendous significance in the future development of the agriculture 
