IOWA. 109 



The affairs of the Indiana station are conducted in a systematic 

 and businesslike way and the amount of work done appears com- 

 mensurate with the funds available. The station is studying a large 

 number of live agricultural problems of the State and is filling a 

 position of great usefulness. 



IOWA. 



Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames. 



Department of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. 



C. F. CuRTiss, M. S. A., D. Sc, Director. 



Several changes occurred in the staff of the Iowa station during 

 the year. C. A. Scott, the forester, was succeeded in September by 

 G. B. MacDonald. The new chemist, A. W. Dox, entered upon his 

 work in October, and W. A. Lippincott succeeded H. C. Pierce as 

 poultryman. A. Leitch, in charge of the dairy farm section, re- 

 signed to take up commercial work, and was succeeded by H. H. 

 Kildee, assistant animal husbandman of the station. P. E. Brown, 

 of the New Jersey station, entered upon the position of soil bacte- 

 riologist in August, 1910. K. E. Neidig was appointed research as- 

 sistant in the chemical department beginning with November, 1910, 

 and at the close of the year W. F. Beckman succeeded C. V. Gregory 

 as bulletin editor of the .station. 



Many useful additions and other improvements were made in the 

 poultry (PI. I, fig. 1) and other animal husbandry equipment, as well 

 as in the experiment field and laboratory facilities of the station. The 

 State has provided the station with a permanent annual appropria- 

 tion of $15,000 and an additional $15,000 a year was given by the last 

 legislature. 



The five distinct lines of Adams fund work previously reported 

 were continued and satisfactory progress was made. Studies on the 

 relation of organic matter in the soil to crop production under 

 different systems of soil management were carried on with different 

 substances as the sources of the organic matter. 



The work on humus and its relation to the physiological activities 

 of the apple, in which the departments of horticulture and of soils 

 cooperate, was conducted in a rented orchard with 10 varieties of 

 apples under different methods of culture and orchard management. 



The study of Mendelian unit characters in cattle breeding has re- 

 sulted in 10 different matings of the blue-gray Shorthorns made by 

 crossing the white Shorthorn bull and the Galloway cow. Observa- 

 tions were made on the transmission of certain characters and full 

 written and photographic records were made. 



In the study of the influence of feed, environment, and breeding 

 on dairy cows, special attention was given to the effect of environ- 



