grains, as they are grown throughout the world, the special uses to which each is adapted, their relative value in the market, and whatever else may be found helpful to the grain farmer. In the same way desired special information is given in all branches of the farming industry. In most cases I think that the students in shorter courses are expected to reduce by specific study their general knowledge of the nature and properties of soils to some exactness, and especially to learn definitely how water acts in the soil, and how plants are constructed and grow, but in general the object of the shorter course is to give to the student such knowledge as he can at once put to evidently profitable use, as, for instance, the care and management of dairy machinery, the testing of milk and its manipulation so as to save as nearly as possible all the butter fat, the principles of feeding, and simple methods of testing its results, the nursing of sick animals, and the like.

To many students perhaps the best thing which the shorter courses gives him is something which he did not come for, and that is some notion of the immensity of what he does not know. When once a young man has perfectly acquired this notion, he is in a way to get on, for he is then likely to begin to learn from everything he sees.

The other special schools directly connected with the College of Agriculture are those in which practical instruction is given by practical men to students of special branches of agriculture. Of these the dairy school is the most common, and, indeed, almost the only one of this class of schools as yet established. In the dairy school it is possible to reproduce the exact conditions of farm life. The school dairy is exactly like any other good dairy, and students who themselves feed and care for the animals by what are said to be approved methods, can see whether or not these methods actually produce the better results which are assumed for them. Outside milk is delivered just as it is to other creameries, which the students themselves can test, and by reference to the books can see whether and how well good milk and good methods pay. They can learn to judge very exactly of the value of cows for the dairy. They can learn the most economical methods of

handling milk in the production of butter and cheese, and how to properly care for machinery. They will not learn much about bacteria, but they will learn a great deal about their effects, and how to encourage the good and repress the evil in the process of ripening butter and cheese; and this knowledge is all that the practical dairyman requires. Finally, as his product is sold, he will learn, in marketing, exactly what customers think of it.

His instructors in the art will be experienced working dairymen, who make their living by that means, and can make it anywhere. With that instruction he will receive regular lectures from the scientific staff, on the principles underlying the art which he practises, which will put him in a way to get the most profit from his experience at the school, and subsequently in the dairy where he is employed. It is by the dairy school that all the world-renowned dairy districts have attained their excellence. In these districts the graduates of these schools are sought for as workmen and superintendents of creameries. For the latter position, however, while dairy knowledge is essential, it is not all that is required. No one can be a good superintendent of anything who does not possess, in addition to accurate knowledge of the details of the business, executive ability, vigor, and tact. The reward of the dairy school graduate is not munificent, but it is something. With good bodily vigor, it should be $35 per month, or $50 if he boards himself. The "butter maker" of a large creamery should earn $900 a year. There are large creameries which pay $100 a month, or even more, for a "manager" or "superintendent," or whatever he may be called; but, as already stated, the requirements of these positions call not only for dairy knowledge, but for other qualifications.

The courses at these dairy schools greatly vary. In some of the newer states a single winter course of three months is all that is attempted. The Wisconsin school, than which there is no better in America, requires attendance at one winter course, then a summer's practice in the dairy, then another winter course, and the final certificate is not given

except upon evidence of successful dairy practice for some time after leaving the school. While undergoing probation, the students are visited, wherever they may be at work in the state, by representatives of the University, who personally satisfy themselves of the character of students' work before the certificate is granted.*

*See Appendix B for curriculum of the Wisconsin Dairy School, which is typical of the best class of schools everywhere.

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CHAPTER V.

THE FARMERS' INSTITUTE.

ERHAPS the most useful, and, at any rate, the most

widely useful, of the methods of diffusing agricultural education is the Farmers' Institute. I have not taken pains to trace the origin of this institution, but it has gradually developed, apparently from rather crude beginnings, in all the progressive agricultural nations, of course varying in character as well as in name in different countries. The essential feature is the gathering of farmers at some convenient place near their homes, to meet successful specialists in the branches of agriculture most followed in the vicinity, for the discussion of practical problems in agriculture. Wherever this is done, by whatever name the meeting may be called, there is a Farmers' Institute.

In their order of relative importance, I conceive the objects of the Farmers' Institute to be, first, to get farmers to thinking clearly; second, to get them to talking; and, third, to convey information. The latter is by far the easiest, as the specialists who conduct the institutes always have abundant information. to give, and are accustomed to giving it to public assemblies; but the mind untrained to such work can receive and assimilate but a small amount of the information conveyed in a continuous session of a day or two, and in a few weeks there will remain of the information given, in the minds of most present, at least so far as it has been given by formal lectures, little more than a vague impression. The best institute conductors fully understand this; and, instead of seeking to occupy the time themselves, find the highest exercise of their skill in drawing out the experiences of the farmers present. This is best, for several reasons. In the first place, the aggregate of useful experience in any neighborhood is always very large, and, as developed under local conditions, very apt to be more

valuable than the more general knowledge of the lecturers. At least it has a value of a different kind, and is always more quickly appreciated by those present. A farmer who will forget in a week the greater part of the good points of a set lecture from a stranger, will remember to his dying day the relation of experience by a successful neighbor. He will also, from time to time, have opportunity to talk it over, and to observe the actual workings of the method advocated. If, encouraged by the relation of his neighbor, he is led on to contribute his own experience on some special point, great good has been done. If, as is commonly the case, there is more or less disagreement, so much the better. When two men disagree, a new center of intellectual activity has been set up. If the disagreement is of sufficient importance to interest the community at large, they are all likely to engage in investigations upon their own account, and the influence of the institute may be felt in the neighborhood for years, and far longer than the effect of an address of a very able stranger would have endured. When the disagreements are of slight importance, the skill of the conductor is shown by the measure of his success in diverting the discussion without offense to any.

In this country the Farmers' Institute is a matter of state concern, the Legislatures of most states making annual appropriations for their expenses. This fund is, in some cases, expended by the State University, or Agricultural College, and sometimes by State Commissioner or Boards of Agriculture. In most states the majority of the institutes are crowded into a few winter months, when the staff of the Agricultural College is fully employed in college duties. In such cases the lecturers are mostly themselves farmers who have been specially successful in some lines of agriculture, and who are, besides, thoroughly endowed with strong common sense, backed by wide experience. The lectures and discussions at such institutes tend to take on what is called the "practical" form, by which is meant a relation of experience, or observation and results, with the underlying scientific doctrine not prominent. The paid lecturers, however, even if not highly