IOWA. 



73 



once in favor of the beef type in the vahie of the product, as deter- 

 mined by the buyers for the market and by the slaughter and block 

 tests conducted at the college. The station has also published the 

 results of a study of commercial or creamery butter in Iowa, in which 

 55 creamery operators cooperated by furnishing regularly samples 

 of butter for examination and gave information concerning the meth- 

 ods employed by them. 



The station has continued the lines of work formerly in progress 

 and has also enlarged the scope of its investigations, especially in 

 dairjnng, horticulture, and agronomy. The new dairy building is 

 now occupied and a dairy farm of about 300 acres has been pur- 

 chased at a cost of $27,000. Extensive cooperative work in dairying 

 /^particularly in the keeping of butter) has been arranged between 

 the station and the Bureau of Animal Industry of this Department. 

 S. A. Beach, formerly of the New York State Station, has been made 

 horticulturist of the station, and the horticultural work is to be en- 

 larged, the State Horticultural Society cooperating with the station. 



The work in agronomy is now assuming large proportions. " Com 

 trains " have been run over the whole State to arouse an interest in 

 better seed corn ; a study of the variation in the fertility of the soils 

 of the State has been energetically prosecuted by means of chemical 

 analyses, pot cultures, and field experiments; and experiments in inv 

 proving corn and other cereal crops have been made in cooperation 

 with the Bureau of Plant Industry of this Department. In this and 

 similar work the station also cooperates with a number of county 

 poor farms and with individual farmers. Increased attention is be- 

 ing given to forestry work in the cooperative arrangement with the 

 Forest Service of this Department. Extensive forest plantations are 

 being made under the direction of the forester, and tests of the dura- 

 bility of different kinds of soft woods for fence posts, as well as the 

 effectiveness of various preservatives, are being carried on. 



As in previous years, numerous lines of work in animal breeding 

 and feeding are in progress with cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses, the 

 breeding of range sheep being carried on in cooperation with the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry. 



The last legislature gave $3,500 for two years " for good roads 

 experimentation," With the cooperation of the railroads of the State 

 a " good-roads special " has been run over the State to awaken inter- 

 est in the subject and to demonstrate the advantages of better meth- 

 ods of road making. 



This station is in a highly prosperous condition and has a largo 

 amount of valuable work in progress and ])lanned for the future. 

 The results of its work are, moreover, being made innncdiately avail- 

 able to the farmei^j of the State. 



