MERS' INSTITUTES

A decade and a half ago, there was a vigorous campaign for the
establishment of university extension throughout the United States.
Generally speaking the campaign was a losing one--with but a few
successes amid general failure. But many years before this agitation,
there was begun a work among farmers, which in form and spirit was
university extension, and which has constantly developed until it is
today one of the most potent among the forces making for rural progress.
This work has been done chiefly by what are now universally known as
farmers' institutes.

The typical farmers' institute is a meeting usually lasting two days,
held for the purpose of discussing subjects that relate to the interests
of farmers, more particularly those of a practical character. As a rule,
the speakers to whom set topics are assigned are composed of two
classes: the first class is made up of experts, either professors or
experimenters in agricultural colleges and similar institutions, or
practical farmers who have made such a study of, and such a conspicuous
success in, some branch of agriculture that they may well be called
experts; the second class comprises farmers living in the locality in
which the institute is held. The experts are expected to understand
general principles or methods, and the local speakers the conditions
peculiar to the neighborhood.

The meeting usually begins in the forenoon and ends with the afternoon
session of the second day--five sessions being held. As a rule, not over
two or three separate topics are treated in any one session, and in a
well-planned institute topics of a like character are grouped together,
so that there may be a fruit session, a dairy session, etc. Each topic
is commonly introduced by a talk or paper of twenty to forty minutes'
length. This is followed by a general discussion in which those in the
audience are invited to ask questions of the speaker relevant to the
topic under consideration, or to express opinions and give experiences
of their own.

This is a rough outline of the average farmers' institute, but of course
there are many variations. There are one-day meetings and there are
three-day meetings, and in recent years the one-day meetings have grown
in favor; in some states local speakers take little part; in some
institutes a question-box is a very prominent feature, in others it is
omitted altogether; in some cases the evening programme is made up of
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