REPORT OF FARMERS' INSTITUTE WORK, 1910.

T. B. PARKER, DIRECTOR.

During the Institute year from December 1, 1909, to November 1, 1910, there have been held 392 institutes under the direction of the State Department of Agriculture. Of this number 196 were regular Farmers' Institutes for men, 173 were institutes for women, 17 orchard demonstration institutes, 5 corn institutes, and one three days' Roundup Institute or Farmers' Convention. During the year institutes were held in 96 of the 98 counties in the State, Dare and Carteret only not having institutes.

The growth of institutes in the State is shown in the following table:

1898 28 institutes in 27 counties.
1903 17 institutes in 16 counties.
1904 58 institutes in 58 counties.
1905 79 institutes in 76 counties.
1906-136 institutes in 91 counties.
1907-169 institutes in 93 counties.
1908-234 institutes in 95 counties.
1909-247 institutes in 93 counties.
1910-392 institutes in 96 counties.

There were applications for several more institutes, but they came largely from counties in which several had already been provided for. In addition to the above there have been two institutes held for colored farmers. Interest in institute work has been more manifest among the farmers this year than ever before.

In our institute work the newspapers of the State have given to us unstinted coöperation and assistance, by announcing places and dates of the meetings, printing the programs in full and urging their readers to attend them. At each institute for men a premium of one dollar was offered for the best five ears of a pure-bred corn and a like sum was offered at the women's institutes for the best loaf of bread baked and exhibited by a girl or woman living on the farm. Many of the newspapers of the State supplemented these premiums by giving a year's subscription to the man or woman exhibiting the best five ears of corn and the best loaf of bread at the institutes in their county. The Progressive Farmer made a special offer of a year's subscription to that paper to any girl or woman exhibiting the best plate of biscuits at any institute. It affords me pleasure to make this public acknowledgment of the unstinted helpfulness of the editors of the State press in this work.