STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 625 



training- is so necessary. Let me suggest one tlionglit: A few years ago, 

 wlien some of tlie older men here present were boys, it was possible to 

 go into any Ivind of industry as an apprentice and by slow effort and hard 

 knocks learn about that business, so that by the time a man grew tip, he 

 would be well versed in that business. Now, that is not possible today. 

 Business is done on a different basis altogether. This school proposes 

 to give a man in three or four years training in these different branches 

 which, if he relied upon his own efforts, would take him a lifetime to learn. 

 The same thing is true of the farm. Here is a young man that wishes to 

 run a farm, he can learn more in twelve weeks' time under a competent 

 instructor than he could learn in twelve years by knocking around. 

 Take it in the dairy business. He can learn more about the milk and the 

 handling of the products here in ten weeks than he could learn in ten 

 years outside. The value of a school of industrial training is apparent. 

 The man who fails to recognize the value of an industrial training is be- 

 hind the times— does not understand the situation. 



I refei-red a moment ago to the relative demand for this training as 

 shown by the students who come to Purdue University. Last year in the 

 entire State of Indiana, less than 125 young men sought training of any 

 kind in farming. I don't know how many thousands of young men there 

 are in this State who live on farms or growing up in connection with 

 farms or who hope to spend their lives on farms, but out of that number 

 less than 125 last year sought any kind of training in the line of their 

 business, so that when I say the demand for training in the line of farm- 

 ing in the State of Indiana is low and small, I am stating the facts. We 

 do not mean the students who come to Purdue University. It means all 

 students of all kinds in the State of Indiana who sought agricultural train- 

 ing. Now, that ought not be so. Here is a great State. The agricultural 

 business in this State is the greatest business here. There is no State 

 in the Union that is so favored, and what are they thinking of if they 

 expect to maintain their position among other States and among other 

 industries if they neglect this fundamental idea at the present time, the 

 training in the line of their business? I don't say that reproachfully; I 

 say it regretfully. I wish there might ha^'e been ten thousand farmer 

 boys in this State last year who had such an idea of the value of training 

 in their business that they had sought some one, some grade of special 

 training to help their work. I wish there would have been ten thousand 

 of them. We want to see students in this line. I am not concerned 

 about the Engineering Departments of this University. We have had 

 trouble to keep people from overrunning us there. We have the doors 

 wide open in the School of Agriculture, and we are doing everything 

 we can think of to make it profitable and desirable for young men and 

 women to enter this department, and the only thing we feel the lack of 

 mostly at this time is the lack of students. This building ought to be 

 crowded twelve months of the year with s^oung men and women who 



