The most important industry was the wholesale slaughtering and packing of meats, which yielded 22.9% of the total manufactured product of the state in 1900, and 22.5% of the total in 1905. From 1870 to 1905 Illinois surpassed the other states in this industry, yielding in 1900 and in 1905 more than one-third of the total product of the United States. The increase in the value of the product in this industry in Illinois between 1900 and 1905 was over 10%. An interesting phase of the industry is the secondary enterprises that have developed from it, nearly all portions of the slaughtered animal being finally put to use. The blood is converted into clarifying material, the entrails are used for sausage coverings, the hoofs and small bones furnish the raw material for the manufacture of glue, the large bones are carved into knife handles, and the horns into combs, the fats are made to yield butterine, lard and soap, and the hides and hair are used in the manufacture of mattresses and felts. The manufacture of iron and steel products, and of products depending upon iron and steel as raw material, is second in importance. The iron for these industries is secured from the Lake Superior region, the coal and limestone from mines within the state. Indeed, in the manufacture of iron and steel, Illinois was surpassed in 1900 only by Pennsylvania and Ohio, the 1900 product being valued at $60,303,144; but the value of foundry and machine shop products was even greater ($63,878,352). In 1905 the iron and steel product had increased in value since 1900 44.9%, to $87,352,761; the foundry and machine shop products 25.2%, to $79,961,482; and the wire product showed even greater increase, largely because of a difference of classification in the two censuses, the value in 1905 being $14,099,566, as against $2,879,188 in 1900, showing an increase of nearly 390%. The development of agriculture, by creating a demand for improved farm machinery, has stimulated the inventive genius; in many cases blacksmith shops have been transformed into machinery factories; also well-established companies of the eastern states have been induced to remove to Illinois by the low prices of iron and wood, due to cheap transportation rates on the Great Lakes. Consequently, in 1890, in 1900 and again in 1905, Illinois surpassed any one of the other states in the production of agricultural implements, the product in 1900 being valued at $42,033,796, or 41.5% of the total output of agricultural machinery in the United States; and in 1905 with a value of $38,412,452 it represented 34.3% of the product of the entire country. In the building of railway cars by manufacturing corporations, Illinois also led the states in 1900 and in 1905, the product being valued at $24,845,606 in 1900 and at $30,926,464 (an increase of nearly one-fourth) in 1905; and in construction by railway