WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK


ies were given to mankind. All professors are encouraged to engage
in research in their special fields along with their teaching, in the
belief that the best teacher for university students is one who keeps
abreast with the advance of his science and himself contributes there-
to. The legislature has made a small app-ropriation specifically for
research and a few donations have been made by private parties to
the University for investigations along particular lines. In recent
years considerable financial assistance for research in the field of the
natural sciences has been afforded by the Alumni Research Founda-
tion, whose income is derived from patents assigned to it by university
professors who have made commercially valuable discoveries in their
research.
   The greatest amount of attention to research and experimentation
has been given in the College of Agriculture, one of whose definite
functions is the development of improved agricultural methods. This
work is done through the Agricultural Experiment Station, whose
director is the dean of the College of Agriculture and whose staff are
the members of the faculty. The University conducts two good sized
farms at Madison and five branch agricultural stations in different
parts of the state, which serve the dual purpose of demonstration and
experiment. Members of the staff of the Experiment Station are
constantly engaged in experiments along such lines as the control of
insect pests and plant diseases, the development of better seed grains
and farm animals, the best use to be made of various types of soil
and their improvement through fertilizers, the most economical feeds,
and numerous others. In recent years much attention has been given
to marketing problems and rural social life. The results of all such
studies and experimentation are usually embodied in bulletins issued
by the College of Agriculture which are widely distributed, the pur-
pose of such research being to improve farming in this state and to
make it more profitable and enjoyable.
   Other valuable research has been accomplished and is now being
carried on in the field of engineering. Aiding Wisconsin industry, the
College of Engineering each year carries on important and valuable
research in many different fields. Among the more important of these
is research conducted for machinery industries, the lime and brick
industry, iron foundry industries, and electrical manufactures. By
its successful experiments with the mixing of concrete for paving,
the Engineering College in one year saved the state a total of $350,000
in its highway paving costs, and it is expected that these savings will
be larger in the future. The Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineering
Division of the Engineering College has gone far in helping to keep
industrial and domestic wastage from polluting the state's lakes and
streams, while the University's electrical standards laboratory has
saved Wisconsin electricity consumers thousands of dollars through
its rigid testing of electric meters and electric appliances.
  Valuable research is also being done by the Wisconsin Geological and
Natural History Survey, whose aim is to apply science to the con-
servation of the state's natural resources, such as its lakes and