Farmers' Week in Agricultural College. 121 



Just how Experiment Stations have secured helpful information 

 and how this information can be directly applied in farm operations 

 can be illustrated by work which has been done in Indiana. 



In Northern Indiana there are more than a million acres of muck 

 land. On this farmers were unable to grow com successfully. All 

 attempts resulted in failure. The Experiment Station took up this 

 problem and after some investigation found that it was lacking in one 

 of the elements, namely, potash. On several farms plots were laid out 

 and muriate of potash applied to some of this soil. The result was 

 that in four years ninety-six bushels more corn were grown on each 

 acre treated than were grown on the untreated soil. The cost of treat- 

 ment was about three dollars per acre. The returns were more than 

 $45.00 per acre. ^Nluch time and effort was required to discover this 

 one fact, but now when applied it means many thousands of dollars 

 annually to the farmers of the State. 



The Animal Husbandry Department of the Purdue Experiment 

 Station has been doing some interesting and valuable work in feeding 

 cattle. They are attempting to place the cattle feeding business of 

 our State on a profitable basis. Their first movement in this connec- 

 tion was to determine the value of the practices followed by many 

 feeders in the State. After some investigation they found that there 

 were two common rations fed by different feeders. One was corn, corn 

 fodder, and oats straw^ The other corn and clover hay. The study of 

 these rations shows that the latter, corn and clover hay, is more or less 

 balanced, having a large amount of protein added through the clover 

 hay. The first ration is one sided, containing no carrier of nitrogen or 

 protein. The Department purchased two car loads of steers on the 

 Chicago market and fed them on the above rations for one hundred 

 and eighty days and the result was that the lot receiving corn, shredded 

 vstover and oats straw required L3.4 pounds of corn to produce one 

 pound of beef, and when sold on the market returned a profit of $1.14 

 per steer. The second lot receiving corn and clover hay reciuired only 

 9.4 pounds of corn to produce a pound of beef and returned a profit of 

 $8.62 per steer. In Indiana of that year more than sixty thousand 

 steers Avere fed. If by proper feeding a profit on each steer of $7.50 

 could have been had, it w^ould have meant more than $450,000.00. This 

 is many times the amount appropriated by the State to the Purdue 

 Experiment Station. 



Similar illustrations could be given in farm crops, dairying, horti- 

 culture, etc., but the above is sufficient to demonstrate that the Experi- 

 ment Stations are securing information, which if applied in farming 

 operations, will mean much in increased returns to the farmer. It 



