342 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



exhibition gave one the impression of a gigantic people's school in which 

 the practical things pertaining to the farm and the farm home were ex- 

 pounded. The extension department of the Iowa State College took a 

 very prominent part in this educational work. Daily lectures on hog 

 cholera was one feature in which great interest was taken by farmers. 

 These lectures were supplemented with demonstration work showing how 

 the serum and virus should be injected and what precautions must be 

 taken to prevent the spread of cholera from vaccinated herds. Iowa 

 farmers lost fifteen million dollars worth of hogs last year from cholera 

 and this year the disease is raging all over the state, till so far it has been 

 impossible to manufacture the serum fast enough to supply the demand. 



In the line of feeding the college had several interesting exhibits show- 

 ing comparisons between the use of self-feeders for fattening hogs as com- 

 pared with feeding by hand in the usual manner. Accompanying figures 

 showed that the hogs fed from a self-feeder gained 1..5 pounds a day at a 

 cost of $5.04 per cwt., while those that were hand-fed gained 1.3 pounds 

 daily at a cost of $5.30 per cwt. Similar exhibits showed results of lamb 

 feeding experiments for which shelled corn, ear-corn, and corn meal had 

 been used. Steer feeding tests illustrating the use of cottonseed meal in 

 connection with silage and clover hay showed that more rapid gains were 

 made with the concentrate and that the cost of making gains was reduced 

 60 cents per cwt. 



One very pleasing and instructive exhibit in the college building was a 

 model farmstead showing windbreak, orchard, vegetable garden, yards, 

 feed lots, barns, granary, silos, and other buildings. This model was not 

 shown as an ideal, but rather as a suggestion of the desirability of paying 

 more attention to formulating better plans for the arrangement of the 

 farmstead with a view of securing not only greater convenience, but also 

 more beauty. The college stands ready to send out a man to any farmer 

 to help draw plans for arranging the farmstead better and for laying out 

 the whole farm with a view of getting it arranged for systematic crop 

 rotation. Much can be done in the way of planning the farm for lines of 

 work for which it seems best adapted, and farmers should avail them- 

 selves of such help as the college stands ready to give without expense 

 to the recipient. 



The horticultural and agricultural displays were very similar to what 

 has been shown in that line for the past ten years. Little, if any, improve- 

 ment has been made in that period. To one who has seen the various 

 varieties of fruit sitting around on plates for the past decade, a few bundles 

 of grain grown especially for show purposes, there was little of interest to 

 observe. The few individual farm displays, while pleasing to look at in a 

 casual manner, carried with them no lesson of any value whatsoever. In 

 fact, when one studies these exhibits for a few minutes one becomes dis- 

 gusted with them, for they are so artificial that they mean absolutely 

 nothing. What farmer could possibly grow ten varieties of corn, four or 

 five varieties of wheat, half a dozen kinds of oats, and as many different 

 varieties of barley and rye on one farm? It is absurd to think that so 

 many different things could possibly be grown on one farm except for ex- 

 hibition purposes, and grown in that manner they are of no practical value 



