STATE AID TO DAIRY INSTRUCTION. 11 



manner of instruction provided for their people. The early promo- 

 ters of State education in dairying saw clearly that any provision 

 made for the mass of the people mast be carried to them. Only a 

 small number of the whole will or can come to a common center to 

 be instructed. In Sweden, Denmark and Ireland the college and 

 school were supplemented by the itinerant method, and this, perhaps, 

 has shown the most decided and rapid change in the minds and work 

 of the people affected by it. The progess made in dairying in Ire- 

 land and Wisconsin during the past four years is truly amazing. 

 And yet these successes have resulted mainly from the wise use of 

 the itinerant method of instruction. In addition to the State dairy 

 schools, Ireland supports travelling dairies, which are operated by 

 skilled 3'oung men and women trained in her schools. lu the schools, 

 and from the lips of the itinerant teacher, the farmer's boys and 

 girls are taught the principles of food, feeding, and stock manage- 

 ment which produce the best aud most economical results. 



Formerly, we used to hear a great deal about dair^^ belts, and the 

 traditions of dairy families born in sections known to raise good 

 dairy products. To-day, Georgia and Mississippi, Texas and 

 Colorado are part of this fanciful belt, because thay have become 

 interested in the work, and have in their midst some of the dairy 

 skill of the old dairy State. The dairy belt is where the dairyman 

 is found. The modern dairyman differs from the dairyman of the 

 past only in this. Then he was subject to conditions, now the con- 

 ditions are subject to him in so far as he can control them. The 

 prizes of the modern dairyman are soils capable of growing abund- 

 ance of pasture and supplementary fodders, plenty of cool water, and 

 a reasonably regular climate. No State in the union has greater 

 natural advantages than this, and few have done so little to foster, 

 by State aid, the education of the dairyman. 



Besides a grant of $12,000 for farmers' institutes, a liberal vote 

 for a short course in agriculture at Madison, the State Dairy Asso- 

 ciation of Wisconsin receives a large grant of mone}'. The total 

 amount spent in Wisconsin on itinerant education is about $20,000 

 a year. To Wisconsin belongs the honor of having elected a dairy- 

 man for its Governor. New York has long voted generously to its 

 educational institutions. Of late 3'ears it has felt most keenly the 

 competition of Canada in its great cheese market at Liverpool. 

 Until last year she felt compelled to supplement the already large 



