12 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Missouri is the leading poultry State in the Union. Our poul- 

 try products are worth annually approximately $70,000,000, ex- 

 ceeding in value our annual wheat and oat crop combined, and yet, 

 aside from a week's lectures on this subject in the University, 

 there is not a single dollar being expended in instruction or re- 

 search in the entire State upon this important subject. 



Pure Food Law. — A law regulating the sale of feed stuffs for 

 live stock, similar to that now on the statute books for the con- 

 trol of the manufacture and sale of commercial fertilizers, should 

 be enacted. Practically all of the states in the Mississippi Valley, 

 except Missouri, have such a law, and the result is that Missouri 

 is being made the dumping ground for all of the adulterated, spur- 

 ious and worthless foods which have been driven out of our neigh- 

 boring states by the enforcement of their laws. Our farmers, 

 stockmen and citizens in towns and villages who keep horses and 

 cattle are thus made to suffer the penalty of our neglect in this 

 important matter. 



It is likewise true that the Missouri market is open for the 

 foods and drugs intended for human consumption, which are so 

 badly adulterated, misbranded and deleterious to public health as 

 to have been excluded from the markets of our surrounding states. 

 The control of this matter, as well as that of the stock foods, should 

 be placed in the hands of the Experiment Station. 



BUILDINGS. 



Neiv Agricultural Building, $200,000. — The building now used 

 by the College of Agriculture is the oldest owned by the University, 

 was never adapted to the purposes, is entirely too small, is illy 

 ventilated, and is not commensurate with the importance of agri- 

 culture in the University. We would strongly recommend, there- 

 fore, that the sum of $200,000 be appropriated for the erection of a 

 new and suitable building, which would likewise serve as head- 

 quarters for the Board of Agriculture. 



Veterinary Laboratory and Hospital, $50,000. — It should be 

 borne in mind that Missouri is one of the leading live stock states 

 in the Union. Necessarily, therefore, the loss from animal dis- 

 eases is a heavy tax upon the stockman, and any instruction and 

 investigations which will enable him to reduce this loss will add 

 materially to the wealth of the State and be money wisely invested. 

 The Forty-second General Assembly made an appropriation for 

 this purpose, but it was against the collateral inheritance tax, and 

 the money failed to come into the fund. The Forty-fourth General 



