212 THEISLAND ACADIANS 
     
    
   
   
    
     others, who have the right to fix the prices of their products (TR)!*”. 
     
    

    
     As soon as the provincial Department of Agriculture took over 
     
     these clubs in 1901 they multiplied and were henceforth called Farm- 
     
     ers’ Institutes. As a matter of fact, one of the first projects which the 
     
     new Department of Agriculture on the Island undertook was to or- 
     
     ganize a network of Farmers’ Institutes similar to the one that had 
     
     already existed in Ontario for about fifteen years'**. Department rep- 
     
     resentatives visited farmers with the aim of encouraging them to form 
     
     thirty-three institutes, each one overlapping two Lots. Each institute 
     
     duly formed received a grant of fifty dollars!®. 
     
    

    
     Acadian farmers, who had already organized clubs in several 
     
     places, welcomed this governmental support. For many years, the 
     
     institutes located in their townships had the largest membership and 
     
     were among the most active in the province'®’. 
     
    

    
     The activities of Farmers’ Institutes were varied. First, the regular 
     
     meetings gave the farmers a chance to share their knowledge and 
     
     experience. Often they had experts, provided by the Departments of 
     
     Agriculture, give lectures on practical matters like the care and feeding 
     
     of dairy cattle, soil cultivation and moisture content, and weed iden- 
     
     tification'’*. In addition, the Institutes purchased for their members 
     
     purebred animals, farm equipment, seeds and chemical products. The 
     
     farmers, for their part, co-operated in the marketing of their products. 
     
     The Union Institute, which included farmers mainly from the parishes 
     
     of Egmont Bay and Mont Carmel, was quite successful—as confirmed 
     
     by the president’s report given at the 1908 annual meeting: 
     
    
   
   
    
     Several lecturers visited us during the course of the year to keep us up-to-date 
     
     with the most recent farming methods; we have greatly improved our livestock, 
     
     especially pigs and cows, by purchasing purebred stock. Several of our most 
     
     dedicated members have won numerous prizes for their exhibits in Charlotte- 
     
     town and Summerside, and Mr. Elie E. Arsenault has just recently honoured 
     
     the “Union” club by winning six prizes at the Exhibition in Amherst that 
     
     brought him the tidy sum of twenty-five dollars. 
     
    

    
     This shows the strength of the union and the spirit of emulation which 
     
     the club has created amongst our farmers and encourages us to progress with 
     
     zeal along the path we have laid out for the advancement of our profession. 
     
     (TR)!°? 
     
    
   
   
    
     The institutes also stimulated the organization of co-operative 
     
     groups like clubs for shipping animals to market, stallion clubs, and