1899 
THE RURAL" NEW-YORKER. 
271 
FRANKLIN DYE, OF NEW JERSEY. Fig. 110. 
President of the American Farmers’ Institute Managers. 
THE AMERICAN FARMERS ' INSTITUTE. 
THE TRAVELING SCHOOL IN AGRICULTURE. 
Its Past, /t$ Present, Its Future. 
The managers or directors of the various State 
farmers’ institutes have an organization, the object of 
which is to afford a means for comparing notes and 
methods. The third annual meeting of this organiza¬ 
tion was held March 29-30, at Rochester, N. Y., and 
* was well attended by directors and institute workers, 
with a sprinkling of farmers.. It was not designed to 
be a popular meeting any more than a meeting of 
high-school teachers would be. It was, however, very 
interesting to one who has watched the progress of 
agricultural education. It must, also, have been help¬ 
ful to those who are directly engaged in the work. 
A Bit ol History.—It would be interesting to 
learn who devised the name “ Institute” for these 
farmers’ meetings. The name will, probably, stick 
now, though it hardly expresses just the desired char¬ 
acter of the traveling school. Mr. T. B. Terry gave a 
striking account of the earlier meetings. Some of 
these were very crude. The speakers often built the 
fire in the hall themselves, and then went out to call 
the people in. Sometimes a boy was hired to go about 
ringing a bell and “calling” the meeting. At one 
place, the sheriff called the institute from the court 
house. The audiences were very small sometimes—• 
only half a dozen—frequently old men or townspeople 
with nothing in particular to do. In those days, few 
came to the institute for real instruction. It was a 
new and uncertain thing. Its value and purpose were 
not recognized. Mr. Terry told of one place where 
his audience consisted of one man and his wife, who 
had come six miles to hear his lecture on The Wife’s 
Share I We would like to know how much of the ad¬ 
vice that husband followed. At another place the 
institute was held in a church. The door was partly 
opened, and a farmer peeped in. He seemed satisfied 
that it was not safe for him inside, but before he 
could close the door, his little dog came in and trotted 
up the aisle to the front—certainly the most sensible 
member of the family. 
Men of Character. —Some of the stories of these 
early beginnings were almost pathetic. American 
agriculture will owe much to the few sturdy and far- 
seeing men who hung on through ridicule and dis¬ 
couragement, and would not let this educational 
movement die out. Slowly but surely the meetings 
gained. Mr. Terry told how, in places where once a 
mere corporal’s guard were barely drummed together, * 
at later meetings he was obliged to climb through 
the window on a ladder, while those outside demanded 
that the windows be opened so that they could hear. 
These stories seem like the dim tales of the old 
pioneers now that the farmer’s institute has become a 
recognized factor in education. At least $150,000 of 
public money are now yearly spent in this work, and 
no one would dream of ever giving it up. The Roch¬ 
ester meeting was made up of strong men of high 
character. Mr. Terry spoke of one case where the 
hotel keeper had agreed to care for the speakers at 
$1.50 per day. When they came to settle, he charged 
$2 per day because “ They didn’t spend a-cent at 
the bar ! ” He had expected to make his profit on the 
rum they would drink I 4 banquet wag given 00 
Wednesday night. Not a glass of liquor was called 
for, and not even a cigar was lighted. This farmers’ 
institute movement is certainly in the hands of strong 
and clean men who may be trusted to develop it well. 
Some Beading Questions.— The farmers’ insti¬ 
tute has passed through its stage of childhood, and 
must now take on definite character and method. 
What shall we attempt to teach ? 
How shall we try to teach it ? 
Whom do we want for speakers ? 
How shall we conduct our meetings f 
The institute is now fairly a part of the recognized 
scheme for agricultural education—as necessary in its 
way as the agricultural college or the experiment 
station. Naturally such questions as the above came 
up for discussion, and many of them could not be 
definitely settled. 
Each State seems to have some original ideas about 
conducting an institute. These peculiar methods 
seem to be the results of local conditions. The State 
managers study the habits and tastes of their people 
in order to make the meetings most attractive. Some 
of them seem to be holding on to the features that 
were most attractive in the earlier days, while others 
think newer methods are needed. The possibilities 
for good in the wise handling and developing of this 
system of traveling schools are almost beyond compre¬ 
hension. 
Woman’s Work. —A large share of the time was 
devoted to a discussion of the wisdom of providing 
special instruction for women. Miss Barrows, editor of 
The American Kitchen Magazine, gave an instructive 
talk on cooking. Mrs. Melville Dewey spoke on the gen¬ 
eral subject of foods. There was a feeling among the 
directors that there should be more of this form of in¬ 
struction. In Michigan, special meetings are held for 
the women, and all through the West, great interest 
is shown in the domestic features of the programme. 
One speaker said that the institute should do more 
for the children in the house than for the calves and 
lambs in the barn, and no one felt disposed to argue 
the point. The indications are that next Winter will 
see more space on the institute programme devoted to 
women’s work and ambitions. 
High or Primary School.— Quite a discussion 
arose as to the classes of men at whom the institute 
workers should direct their attention. The tendency 
is to cater to the more intelligent class of farmers. 
To this it was objected that such men are best able to 
take care of themselves. One criticism was made that 
the speakers do not come down to the level of the men 
who most need their help. Dr. W. H. Jordan was in¬ 
clined to take the ground that the speakers should 
not answer or discuss many of the crude and simple 
questions put into the Question Box. We hope to 
print his address later, for it will open a wide field 
for thought and discussion. He appeared to think 
that the institute should be a sort of two-days’ high 
school. The answer to this was that, already, the 
tendency of the institute is to minister chiefly to a 
comparatively small class of farmers. These farmers 
come to the institutes year after year, and the speak¬ 
ers naturally prepare for them and plan for a little 
more advanced thought. Thus it is that one tendency 
of the institute is to grow a little above the farmer 
who has, as yet, taken small interest in it. That 
farmer is, after all, the man who is most deserving of 
the help of the scientist and the expert farmer. To 
neglect him is to widen still more .the breach between 
the class of farmers who can easily help themselves 
and those who cannot do so. 
In New York State, the institutes are certainly well 
conducted, and are popular. Efforts are made to se¬ 
cure names of farmers who might not attend without 
some special urging. In the western States, the pre¬ 
liminary and “round up” meetings are strong features. 
Before the institutes open, the workers or speakers 
get together and discuss plans and methods. At the 
end of the season, they come together for a general 
review and an exchange of experiences while such 
things are fresh in mind. 
It seems as though the time had come when the 
directors must decide as to the character of the future 
institutes. One plan is to raise the character of the 
instruction, and employ chiefly a class of scientific 
men, who will discuss only “the fundamental truths 
of science.” In other words, this means a traveling 
high school—a sort of extension of the experiment 
station and the agricultural college. This will make 
necessary another set of meetings—small gatherings 
of a primary character at which earnest, practical 
men may go out among the common farmers with 
more elementary instruction. Another plan is to 
make the present institute simpler, and add some 
popular features that will attract a new class of peo¬ 
ple. The present methods have attracted about all 
farmers of a certain class who would naturally come 
to the institute. Shall the managers go on with this 
high class, or shall they turn them over to the college 
and experiment station, and go down deeper ? This 
is the great problem to be faced. One would get the 
idea that the directors and workers generally would 
prefer the high-school plan. That would be most 
natural, but they must remember that, in all educa- 
cation, the 'primary school is the most important. We 
shall always have plenty of leaders in agricultural 
thought. We need most of all an army of trained 
followers among the common, every-day men. They 
may not give American agriculture its polish and re¬ 
finement, but they give it body, heart and blood—and 
pay, with their products, our bills in foreign coun¬ 
tries, B. w. Q. 
Events of the Week. 
Domestic.—Secretary Alger started to Cuba March 22, for 
change and rest. He traveled on the United States transport 
Ingalls. . . A 16-year old Pennsylvania boy recently prevented 
the wreck of a passenger train by a fallen rock, running two 
miles to give the alarm. The railroad company gave him $25 and 
a scholarship in a business college. . . Seven negroes were 
lynched in Little River County, Ark., March 22. They were sus¬ 
pected of planning a race war, in retaliation for the lynching of 
a negro leader, who had been hanged for the murder of a planter. 
. . . Three negro prisoners were taken from the sheriff, and 
lynched in Yazoo County, Miss., March 23; they were suspected 
of instigating a race war in an adjoining county. . . At the 
coroner’s inquest held over the body of one of the lynched Arkan¬ 
sas negroes, the jury decided that he had been frozen to death, 
though his head had a hole in it, and his neck was broken. . . 
The fragments of more bodies have been found In the ruins of the 
Windsor Hotel', New York, bringing the number up to 39. . . 
Two mine pumpmen who were imprisoned in the Bon Air mine at 
Leadville, Col., were released March 23, after 13 days’ imprison¬ 
ment. They were in good condition. To release them it was 
necessary to sink a 200-foot shaft; the rescue cost $3,000. . . 
Three cases of smallpox were discovered at Orange, N. J., March 
24. . . A fire at the Dangler Stove Works. Cleveland, O , caused 
damage to the extent of $500,000 March 24. One fireman killed. . . 
Four persons were killed and three seriously Injured in a Are in 
a boardinghouse at Memphis, Tenn., March 24. . . March 25 
was the warmest March day registered within 23 years at Dallas, 
Tex.; the temperature reached 93 in the shade. . . A jewelry 
trust has been formed, with a capital of $25 000.000. . . Negro 
miners at Pana, Ill., engaged in a street fight March 25; one 
killed and several wounded. . . Six masked robbers entered 
the power house of the Carbondale, Pa., Traction Company 
March 27, overpowered employees,-and stole the cash-box. They 
then boarded a freight train and overpowered the conductor. At 
Arata Summit, a hotel-keeper, armed with a repeating rifle, at¬ 
tacked the robbers, killed one and wounded two others. All were 
finally captured. . . At Edgefield Court House, S. C., two negroes 
were killed and two others wounded by white men who had quar¬ 
reled with another negro. The white men fired a volley from 
Winchesters into a crowd of negroes. The killed and wounded 
men bore excellent characters, and the killing is regarded as un¬ 
provoked murder. . . During March, 30 persons died in Wash¬ 
ington, D V C , from spotted fever, or cerebro-spinal meningitis. 
Numerous cases are also reported from the Southwest. This 
disease, invariably fatal, was epidemic in some localities after 
the Civil War. It is contagious, but not to the degree that most 
epidemics are. . . A fire in the Armour Curled Hair Works, 
Chicago, March 27, resulted in a loss of $250,000. . . Race 
troubles at Dolomite, Ala., culminated March 28 in a battle be¬ 
tween whites and blacks. Wholesale arrests have been made, 
but further trouble is expected. . . The steamer Rowena Lee 
sunk in the Mississippi near Tyler, Mo, March 29; 50 lives were 
lost. . . The transport Crook arrived at New York March 29, 
with the bodies of 686 soldiers who fell in Cuba and Porto Rico. 
. . . A woolen trust, with a capital of $65,000,000, was incor¬ 
porated March 29. 
Army and Supplies.—March 25, Gov. Roosevelt testified before 
the Court of Inquiry in New York. After describing the appear¬ 
ance and taste of the canned roast beef, and the illness it caused 
when eaten, he was asked his opinion of it as an army ration. He 
replied: “ I regard it as an utterly unfit and utterly unwhole¬ 
some ration for troops. I want to make that statement without 
qualification. I have seen that cans have been tested here and 
found to be wholesome I want to say that the experience I had 
in the Santiago camp proved that the canned roast beef we had 
was at best unpalatable and at worst unwholesome and unfit to 
eat. It was sufficiently unwholesome to tend to make men sick at 
a time when well men were needed.” The Governor said that 
the refrigerated beef, when they got it, was generally good. He 
was asked what efforts were made to get other beef, and he re¬ 
plied that just before the refrigerated beef came, about July 20, he 
made a report on the general deficiency not only of rations, but 
other things. In this report, he called attention to the lack of 
transportation which kept them from getting beans and other 
vegetables to the front, also to the improper clothing of his 
men and the lack of food supply especially for the sick. He said 
there was never more than one day’s food in advance on the 
firing line. The day after he submitted this report, he entered 
Santiago and bought 600 pounds of rice and a lot of flour, oat¬ 
meal and condensed milk. Sergeant James B. Guthrie, of the 
Thirteenth Infantry, testified that he found the canned roast 
beef tough, stringy and ill-smelling. About 15 per cent of the 
cans were tainted. At least half of each can had to be thrown 
away, and the men got nothing in place of it. He had eaten the 
roast beef only once. As it made him vomit, he did not try it 
again. The refrigerated beef, as a rule, he said, was very good. 
Capt. M. B. Saffold, of the Thirteenth Infantry, testified that the 
roast beef was stringy, consisting largely of water and tallow. 
It tasted bad and it smelled bad. He could not eat it. It was 
what he would call boiled beef with everything boiled out of it. 
There was no more trouble with the refrigerated beef, he said, 
than there is at the average army post. March 27 Mr. Swift, of 
the Chicago beef firm, gave testimony regarding the requirements 
of the contract, and stated that no preservatives were used. . . 
Gen. Eagan was recalled as a witness March 29. He asserted 
that one company had bid to supply processed beef; this is im¬ 
portant, as it is the first evidence that the packers knew of any 
method of processing beef. 
F. E. DAWLEY, OF NEW YORK. Fig. 111. 
Vice-President of the American Farmers’ Institute Managers 
