The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-02-23
MEETINGS BENEFIT FARMERS.
People Gather at State Institutes
Seeking Advice and Information.
Nv PROF. w. T.. MASSEY.

in regard to the practices that have
grown up in the Pennsylvania Farm
ers' Institutes which I consider q
waste of time and effort aud a waste
of the States money.
| refer to the common practice of
having some lawyer or local politician
make an address of welcome and
some one respond, thus taking up
the greater part Of one session with
matter of not a particle OF value to
an institute.
Then the practice of holding general
night sessions that are solely for the
purpo of counting in attendance on
the reports, for they are crowded by
the village folks, who come simply to
be amused and care nothing for the
practical work Of a farmers institute.
And they are amused, very gener-
ally with photograph music, comic
singers and recitationS, and some of
the speakers, entering into the spirit
of the occasion, make funny speeches,
and the result is a waste OF time that
could be better used if the day sessions
were filled up with the serious pur-
pose of an institute. and the State
speakers are obliged to travel late at
night or all the following morning to
reach the next place., where a two-day
session begins at 1880 p. m, and that
afternoon is largely devoted to the adj
dress of welcome and response, so
that al the work that is done could
easily ne -UOIIo III d. OHo-udS Institute
if the frills were left off.
NoH, | want to say something about
the way things are done at the North
Carolina Institutes, where ! spent a
month last summer.
There is no State appropriation in
North Carolina for the general tax list
for farmers Institutes as in PennSyl-
.va1ia, but the expenses Of the lnstl-
tutes are borne by the farmers alone,
the board of agriculture holding them
with The funds derived from the tax
on commercial fertilizers.
Institutes are held in the leisure
time between the ~laying-by of the
crops and the beginning of cotton
picking, a far better season for the
and the audience to get out
than in the muddy times of winter.
The North Carolina institutes, I'M
der the direction of DIR. Ialt Butler,
who IS also the State veterinarian
have been wonderfully successful. Last
summer there We're five parties IN the
field. and 1913 institutes We're held,
twenty-five OF which I attended
In Mecklenburg county alone there
were five institutes Of one day each
and at one point we had 1900 per
sons. in attendance and at another
point in hat county there We're over
1000.
Al none Of these institutes was there
a lawyer to make an address OF wei
come and no one responded. We knew
we We're NtlcOIlc VI Tx $50
would not have been there nor tht
Tong tables spread in the grove.
In fact, there was no time wasted
b,,t every hour was filled with practi
cal suggestions and replies TO tnt
eager questions of the audience.
At one point, IN the splendid court
house at Winston-Salem in Forsyti
county. | took the rostrum with TN
purpose of making an address: oo
did not say q word on the subject
n nov beS1l
at once to fire questions at me ol
tonics that they wanted to near IRON
me ON and kept me on my feet Tor
whole hour replying to them.
That sort Of an institute IS WORT
q dozen where the whole time is slvei
RI sef speeches. for the pecole in thu
way get what they want. 1hefe Wa
no cell for comic singinS nor luhli.
lectures, but at every point the nusi
ness II the institute was STUCK =
and the meetings "er'
lively enough and instructive.
have been criticised for obiectini
10 he en~tertainment feature OF IN
penn-yIvania Institutes, and some iidN
said want everything TO pc ny
,oica from the tombS and nothing luli
ny At all, and that the tanners a
ac GOOD right to be amused as an
Ri such talk is mere childishnes
ana me writer's would seem 20 conslde
farn7ers mere children who nave com
together for fun and not fof a seriou
purpose. ,. an
When the lawyers, doctors az.
other professional men meet IN thel
associatiOns they do not send TOT
farmer to make them an ADDRESS :
welcome
Thev do not introduce phonograph
co,oic SINGERS nor comic speaker
hut taev go Al once into the bushes
that has called them together an
never forget that they are there I
gain information. in regard TO the
profession, and there is no feaso
why a farmers institute shouId not !
I,o1I1 Devoted fo the serious pul