The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-12-05

farmers institute specialist. There
Were more than 5000 OF these in
stitutes which had regular meetings
last year. and they reached over T.
100000 people They had altogether
5000 sessions. There are also a
large number Of farmers institutes
Tor young people and Of farmers in
stltutes Tor women The latter held
49, meetings in 1910. These, farm,
institutes are largely por by the
state boards OF agriculture. each of
which has its institute director. and
connected with him a lecture bureau
which sends out specialists to the in
stltutes, giving them le lures on any
farm topic they desire Allied To these
which more than 1900 are supported
by the counties alone
Lantern Slide Lectures for Farmers.
OF late the Department OF Agricul-
ture has been sending out a number
or illustrated lectures TO be used at
the farm colleges, farm institutes. eN-
tension courses and the farm clu hs all
over the COUNTRY Each lecture has
forty or fifty lantern slides connected
with 1t, and also n bulletin of in
formation describing the slides. Here.
for instance. is a syllabus on the help
fUi hen- 1t is accompanied by forty
four slides, and il tells how to raise
fowls and how to market them. Its
pictures SHOW all sorts of chickens
and eggs, graphically depicting how
fowls vary in their from
some hens which lay $50 eggs Il year
TO others which lay none at all. The
lecture states that our farms are now
producing $500, 0Q0, 000 worth OF ~oul-
try per annum. and the crop ranks
among the greatest of those which
come from the farm.
Ar1%a~ ,--
of milk. showing that our dairy crop
is worth about S609, 0o0, oOa per ear,
and how we have $1,000, 900 mich
cows in the United States to supply
it. 1t tells just how the COW and it's
milk should be treated and how to
get the most money out of all dairy
products.
Teaching Farmers from Railroad
Trains.
Another feature Of this educational
work of Uncle Sam is carried on in
hfty-tWo of our leading railroad com
panleS We're din the Government
in teaching farm education. They
employed 239 school cars, and sent
them over 10000 miles Of track. Thei~
trains made 1900 stops. and at eacn
place a corps of expert lecturers de-
Hvered talks upon agriculture and
domestic science adapted to the To-
| cality. The total cost Of operating
each train was something like $95 a
day, and the total amount spent was
over $4,000. This teaching reached
hundreds Of thousands Of people. 1t
embraced a total Of about 1900 days
of lecturing, or a period equal to
fourteen years of 500 days each
Each of these educational trains
had a locomotive, a baggage car and
one or two coaches fitted up for lee
ture 1t also carried a Pull
man car, with a dinin" room and
| sleeping quarters for the lecture force.
The lecturers We're from the national
and State departments of agriculture,
/ and from the colleges. The subjects
were chosen to fit the locality where
the lectures were given. In a dairy
Int the talks were on dairying,
and the trains frequently carried dairy
cattle. and specimens Of butter and
| cheese, and all sorts of dairy impIe-
ments to illustrate the work. In a
fruit ountry the trains had fruit ex-
hibitS, and in a stock country they
a hogs and cattle Of various kinds.
En- the wheat and corn lands the lee
turers talked wheat and corn, and in
some other places they talked cotton
or truck gardening.
These educational trans nave their
advance agents. The farmers know
| when they are coming, and they
gather in crowds at the stations. The
railroads realize the value, and say
that such education has materially
added to their traffic. indeed. the
freight from the farms has much 10
do with paying the dividends Of the
railroads. In 1909 of all the freight
carried 1911. 0 900 tons was made
up of agricultural products. OF this
81, 600 goo tonS came from the forest
and $4,000. 00e tons from the farms
proper. while coco, 900 tons were
made up Of animals and other prod
/ ucts. The average receipt for this
stuff, ton per ton, was far above that
FRANK CT. CARPENTER.
of coal and some other minerals.