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r --"- sectarian, non--partisan organization has been kept democratic, free from over-organization with its inevitable cost and irritating red tape, and with each Branch in individual ard direct relationship with the District and Department. The sound principle of the frequ em changing of all officers except the Secretary, of each manber taking herturn and doing her hit in office, has been from the beginning practised and advocated and with the utilization of all other possible neighborhood resources has been the means of unearthing and developing unsuSpected talent of many kinds in a most gratifying: way. it three widely separated points in the province the same feeling was expressed in the same year in the same way, Stcney Cr eeh, Wentwo rth County, Whitby, Ontario County, and Kemble in Grey County. So fine were the foundations laid on that first meeting: day that they have been little changed, though the Society has invaded India and has been found of untold helpin ifrica as well as in the. various countries of EuroPe. There were six principal stones for study and experiment in that foundation; .Dcmestic Economy, Architecture, Physihlogy, Floriculture and Horticulture, Music and Art and Literature, with all their different links, and the Institute has built on alll the six. It would seem that the motive behind the founding of the Institute was the broadening of rural life, for when the rural women p: rtak§ of a larger life, that enrichment is imparted to the community. so much for the foundation. GROWTH --- There is so much to say along this line that it would be impossible to go into it fully. I will speak only of some of the lines along which the Institute has made most rapid growth. We have a basis of organization which has stood the test and is capable of develOpment and adjustment in keeping with the require-- ments of the day. No organization responded more quickly or effectively to war work in 1914 than did the Institutes, and they stayed by it until the end, and have already reached a standard in peace times far in advance of. pre--wer activities in what we may term regular Institute work. We have from the beginning included all classes, sects and nationalities in our membership and have kept the local organization