386 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 July, 1918. 



depth, resting on a clayish subsoil. The land is gently undulating. 

 Iowa is one of the greatest agricultural States, and is the home of com, 

 hogs, beef cattle, and dairying. The population is almost exclusively 

 agricultural, and Des Moines, the capital, is the only town over 100,000 

 inhabitants in a population of 2,250,000. There are no " Back to the 

 Land " problems for Iowa. Probably no other State feeds such a large 

 proportion of its grain to hogs and cattle as Iowa. It Avould be a 

 lesson for any Victorian pig or cattle breeder to come to Iowa to see 

 how stock are fed, and he would also learn much from the way the pig 

 and cattle breeders of Omaha send their stock to market. 



Cattle and hogs are largely " self fed," i.e., allowed to help themselves 

 to corn, hay, and protein foods, such a tankage (a product of the packing 

 industry), and cottonseed meal. Farmers realize that stock, if fed on 

 balanced rations, may be fattened both quickly and economically. They 

 know exactly how much corn, alfalfa, cottonseed meal, and tankage 

 are required to produce 100 lbs. of pork or beef, and their stock are 

 always sold at Chicago, Omaha, and Kansas City by live weight. At 

 present, 100 lbs. of pork is selling for the same price as 14 bushels of 

 corn, so there is a handsome profit in feeding hogs. But I must return 

 to my subject. 



Each of these four States supports an Agricultural College of 

 academic rank, and all support them liberally with men, equipment, 

 and money. The two eastern Colleges are bigger, better equipped, more 

 liberally staffed, do more experimental and research work, and have 

 much larger attendance of students than either of the western Colleges, 

 Utah and Colorado. 



Irrigation and specialized farming is the main type of agriculture 

 in Colorado and Utah ; wheat and live stock, and corn and live stock, 

 are the dominant features of Kansas and Iowa respectively. The 

 Colleges reflect the character of their States agriculture in the stress 

 they give to these features in the curricula of studies. 



In each State, no other agricultural institutions exist save a so-called 

 State Board of Agriculture, the sole duty of which appears to be the 

 holding of the annual show at the capital, and the collection of certain 

 statistics. 



The Colleges at Utah and Colorado spend, roughly, $600,000, whilst 

 the annual appropriation of Kansas is $1,000,000, and Iowa $1,300,000. 

 Kansas and Iowa have important courses on Animal Husbandry, and 

 approximately half the agricultural students take the Animal Husbandry 

 course. In all four cases, vo farm work, such as we have at Dookie, 

 is given. The Americans unreservedly and unhesitatingly say it is an 

 absolute waste of time to teach a lad to plough, drill, harvest, &c. Their 

 courses are intensely technical and practical, but the practical work 

 consists of laboratory exercise, stock judging, stock feeding, &c. At 

 Iowa, I saw a class of twenty-four students judging a group of four 

 steers. After '' scoring " them with score cards, and studying confor- 

 mation, type, &c., they slaughtered them, dressed the cattle, weighed 

 them alive and dressed, and then studied the various cuts of beef. Later, 

 the carcasses were cut up into " round," " loin," " flank," " rib," " brisket 

 and navel," " chunk," and " foreshank." This is the kind of practical 

 work done by the classes in Animal Husbandry on '* Beef production." 



