Farmers’ Institutes were modeled
after the popular Teachers’ Institutes
in the mid-1800s for the purpose of disseminating information to farmers about
the latest developments in farm management. Dr. Norton S. Townshend former secretary of the Ohio Board of
Agriculture, promoted Farmers’ Institutes in Ohio. In an address at the annual
meeting of the State Board of Agriculture in 1874, Dr. Townshend said, "What we want is to abandon the old idea
that farming has no higher aim than getting a living, and instead of it to
adopt the better one that the chief end of farming is the culture and
improvement of the farmer and his family; and while it does this, it should, as
a secondary result, give support and pay expenses. Farming needs a new
departure, or to take a new start, and with a higher aim and purpose, so that
it may secure to the farmer the same improvement in intellectual and social
position that men expect to secure through the professions of law or medicine.
These professions educate men by their daily work, and so will farming when
taken hold of in earnest and in the right way." The Farmers’ Institutes were held in most Ohio
counties during the winter months, for two or three days. Lectures were
presented by state agricultural leaders, followed by open discussions among the
local farmers. On January 1 and 2, 1912, the Erie County Farmer’s Institute was
held at the Perkins Methodist Church.
Ross D.L. Ransom was the president of the Institute,
with Charles F. Steen as vice president, Harry E. Storrs as treasurer, and L.J.
Parker serving as secretary.
Several lectures were given, covering topics
such as soil needs, the consumers’ dollar, use and value of lime, corn growing,
and pruning of nursery stock. Interspersed among the lectures and discussions
were musical numbers by area residents. The Ladies’ Aid Society of the Perkins
Methodist Church provided dinner in the church basement for twenty five cents. Clifford
King donated four programs from Erie County Farmers’ Institutes, from 1911 to
1914.
Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center if you would like to
view this historical items, which are housed in archival box E-6, folder 5. A
chapter about Ohio’s Farmers’ Institutes is found in the Farmer's Centennial History of Ohio, online at the InternetArchive. Agriculture continues to be an important component of Ohio’s economy,
with one in seven Ohioans employed in agriculture or an agricultural related
business.
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