Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-02-20
Is good right to be amused as any

people.
But such talk is mere childishness
and the writer's would seem to consider
farmers mere children who have come
together for fun and not for serious
purpose.
When the lawyers, doctors and other
professional men meet in their associa-
lions they do not send for a farmer to
make them an address of welcome.
They do not introduce monographs
nor comic singers nor comic speakers
but they go at once into the business
that has called them together and
never forget that they are there to gain
information in regard to their profess
sion, and there is no reason why a
farmers institute should not be wholly
devoted to the serious purpose of its
work
No one can object to farmers or any
other class of people having entertain
ments and having all the fun they
need, but the farmers institute is not
for any such purpose and should not
be allowed to degenerate into a mere
jollification.
And I do not know Of any southern
state where the institutes are being
thus diverted from their purpose and
the public money wasted. as it is in
some states where large appropria-
tions have been made for these in
Stitutes.
The fact is. that in the effort to get
out crowd and to count numbers in
attendance these things have been in
troduced and these institutes have de-
generated.
l have attended institutes in Ten
nessee, North Carolina, Georgia, South
! Carolina, Maryland, Mississippi and
Delaware, and also in Illinois, and at
none of these was there anything but
direct and active work at the real pur-
pose for Which the institutes have been
organized. In some parts Of Illinois it
is said that the entertainment feature
has been allowed to creep in, but where
/ attended there was nothing of the
kind.
In some of the larger states north,
where there is a large appropriation
paid for by the whole people, there has
grown up too much of the entertain
ment feature, anG the institutes have
simply gotten past the directors.
comparatively new feature has
been introduced at the North Carolina
Institutes. AT each point we had lady
speakers who held a separate institute
for the farmers wives.
We had two cars moved from point
to point On the railroads. In one of
these-a large express canvas a col
lection of improved farm implements,
which one man demonstrated in a field
where even teams were furnished.
In the Other cara passenger car
a part of the seats We're removed at
one end and a kitchen established with
all sorts of kitchen conveniences and
seats We're left for sixty women.
Lectures We're given them on house
hold economy and demonstrations in
cooking economically. Then at the lat
ter part of the afternoon there was g
| joint session at which a lady speaker
lectured on the duties of farm!
ers and their wives in the homo
and on home-making in general, and
all the way through there was the seri:
Gus purpose of the institute constantly
held to.
These cars, I am glad to say, were
furnished free by the railroad company
and moved from point to point with
out charge.
| In Maryland the Institutes own a
private car, on which the speakers live
and move from point to point for a
school, deeming the quality of the stu
dents of more Importance than mere
numbers.
They often leave the car for larger
meeting in a building, but the lecturers
| live on the car.
The institute for the future must be-
come more and more a farm school
and the effort must be to teach rather
than amuse, and in this line there are
states other than Pennsylvania thai
need a regeneration.