Catoctin clarion., 1910-01-06
Farmers Institute Car
No. 9 Coming.

Farmers Institutes of the Maryland
Agricultural College will soon be an
nounced. The work will begin from the
Institute Car on the Western Maryland
and will continue along the line of the
Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad.
So we'll was the work received last
year, that the plans will not be changed.
The Institute School of Horticulture will
be continued by second course of four
lectures correlating with the lessons OF
last year.
The Institute Car is admirably adapted
to class work being heated and lighted
as we'll as the best lecture halls, and
equipped with fifty comfortable chairs,
chart case, black board, stereopticon and
shades that it may be used by day as well
as by night.
The short course is offered by the De-
partment to meet demand for fuller
instruction than can be given in talk
of an hour at a popular meeting. The
course is for student fruit growers.
A larger attendance than the car can
accommodate will not be expected, as
the stops along the road will be frequent.
When the patrons of the institutes fully
understand how much can be learned at
an institute school, more short course
work will be called for, and the influence
of our Agricultural College will be sent
far afield into every rural neighborhood,
willing to lend a helping hand in order to
receive the benefits of such instruction
which adds interest to farm life and
makes it more desirable to our independ-
ent home loving people.
Maryland women have shown prefer
ence for the work apart from the men,
when they have had the opportunity to
attend institutes exclusively for women,
the attendance his always justified the
extra expense and effort. At the sta
tions where women showed their appre-
citation by attending last year, a short
course of four lectures will be given on
topics in which women are interested.
These lectures will follow the period for
Fruit Growers, one in the morning, and
one in the afternoon.
The Institute Car makes possible an
institute at any siding and also at any
suitable meeting place within two hours
drive from where it may be laying. Two
men who are classed as Field Workers
will accompany the car. Their work will
be, wherever farmers petition the De-
partment that they be assigned for help
in conducting popular meeting. Farm
ers' Clubs, Oranges or Committees are
asked to cooperate with the Department
provide meeting place, petition for the
field men, select local talent, prepare a
program, and conduct an institute as
suits their local conditions.
Through cooperation it is expected
more meetings will be held and more
benefits derived from the money appro-
priated than when the Department took
the lead by laying down Farmers In
stitute without an effort on the part of
the farmers themselves.
The Field Workers will, when no petit
tions have been received for assistance
at public meetings, go out on invitation
to inspect farms, orchards or stables and
advise with the owners as to the best
farm practice. Using the car as Il base
from which to work, the help the Insti-
tute Department can be to the farmer is
far reaching, and has future possible
of great development. A two hours drive
from every railroad station in the state
will carry the men to all neighborhood
settlements ten miles afeld and will work
a strip twenty miles wide, where the
railroads lay, which would leave but a
small section of the State to be worked
under other systems.
A greater effort will be made to have
the farmers organize into Clubs, Oranges
or Committees that they may mutually
help each other. Organization is good
business practice, one adopted by sue
cessful industries. When farmers can
not sell their product without combina-
tion, strong organizations are made which
have demonstrated that the communities
under organization rule are the most
prosperous, enjoy more of the inventions
of the day, and hold their boys and girls
to the farm, than localities where farm.
ers do not have to organize and will not
stand in with their fellows for their just
rewards.
Farmers Institute Car No. will make
stops at the following stations on the
Western Maryland Railroad:
January 81 1............ Hancock.
February 2 3............Ha Hagerstown.
A. .Smithsburg.
Is 8..........T Thurmont.
d" 9-l0. Westminster.
11-l2. Union Bridge