FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 17 



of the important engineering work of this country today. Andrew 

 Carnegie recognized the worth of technical training and was the first man 

 to employ a trained chemist at a blast furnace in this country, and he had 

 to be "made in Germany," With this man's knowledge, the company was 

 vsoon making- money out of slag, scale, etc., which other companies were 

 throwing away. They were also soon able to discover a much better ore 

 than the one used and for which they were paying a big price, and which 

 was being used by other manufacturers. A few trained men like this 

 chemist placed Andrew Carnegie in the lead as a manufacturer of iron and 

 stc^l. He was alwaA's on the look-out for thoroughly trained young men 

 from our best technical schools. He employed them and used their brains 

 and skill even in the smallest details of his work. He elicited their best 

 endeavors by giving- them an interest in the business, and while many of 

 them have become millionaires, they have made for him hundreds of 

 millions of dollars. What is true of the iron industry is true of almost 

 every other industry in this country. It is the young- men with technical 

 training who are forging- this country ahead to industrial supremacy. 

 We have outstripped other countries with cheaper labor because we have 

 had a better supply of intellectual labor. It is the product of skilled 

 labor that Ave are sending into other countries, and the influence of our 

 technical schools in furthering our interests in this regard, is worthy of 

 universal recognition. 



It is almost impossible to form any definite or adequate idea of the 

 benefit technical training has been .to agriculture. In some states the 

 dairy school has given this branch of farming a wonderful impetus. In 

 five years — from '95. to 1900 — the number of dairy cows in Wisconsin was 

 increased 25 per cent. During the same period Minnesota added 7,200 

 dairy animals to her ilumber, while the total number in this country, 

 during the same years, sulfered a marked decrease. The great increase in 

 these states was due almost if not entirely to the influence of the dairy 

 schools conducted by the agricultural department of their universities. 



But the increase in the dairy business among the farmers is not the 

 only benefit accruing from this dairy instruction. Perhaps the greatest 

 benefit after all is in the increased value of the product turned out rather 

 than in the increase in quantity. Creamery butter sells at a much higher 

 price than that made in the old-fashioned way. Since the establishment 

 of the dairy school in Minnesota 70 per cent of the butter is made in 

 creameries. The value of the renmining 80 per cent has been enhanced 

 also as the demand for the better product has stimulated better methods 

 In home dairying. 



What is true in Wisconsin and Minnesota is also true to a less degree 

 in other states. The Babcock Test, which has done more for the dairyman 

 than any other siHgle discovery, was invented in the Wisconsin agricul- 

 tural school. 



Our experiment stations, which are a part of our agricultural colleges, 

 have rendered very valuable service in the development of scientific and 

 practical agriculture in this country. There is not space in such a paper 

 as this to even begin to enumerate the many and successful experiments 

 completed, which have been worth millions upon millions to our farmers. 

 These experiment stations are in every state and are carrying on research 

 Avork of the highest order. They have turned the search light of scientific 

 3 



