Woods: Kaiserism and Heredity 



353 



ojj^nized. but the need for public control 

 of the mating of sovereign houses has 

 scarcely been realized. Nor is it likely 

 to be realized at the present day. But 

 the argument is there, nevertheless. If 

 Caesarism must be abolished, and if 

 despots are largely the result of heredi- 

 tary forces, then the only way to elimi- 

 nate despots is to regulate the sources 

 from which they spring. It will be ob- 

 jected that evil tyrants may come from 

 the middle classes— Napoleon for in- 



stance. The answer is that they do not 

 as often come from such origin as from 

 the breeds of kings. Hie argument re- 

 mains just the same. As far as they 

 arc recast in the ancestral mold (and 

 our increasing knowledge makes us 

 more and more believe that important 

 psychic differences are due to heredity) 

 then just so far the number of despots 

 can be reduced by a control of the mar- 

 riages from which they usually origi- 

 nate. 



Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station Annual Report, Ames, Iowa 



The following is taken from the re- 

 port of the activities of the Iowa Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, submitted 

 for the year ending June 30, 1917. 



The work of the year was character- 

 ized by satisfactory progress with re- 

 gard to all of the active projects of the 

 station. Special emphasis was placed 

 upon the following lines of investiga- 

 tion : Improvement of crops and live 

 stock by breeding; improved methods 

 of growing various farm crops and the 

 management of soils ; new and better 

 methods of feeding and handling live 

 stock; up-to-date methods of manufac- 

 turing and marketing dairy products : 

 the growing and marketing of fruit and 

 truck crops; the control of insect pests 

 and plant diseases ; modern methods for 

 housing live stock and storing crops 

 and up-to-date systems of farm man- 

 agement. 



Adams Fund projects were carried on 

 successfully during the past year on the 

 same basis as in the preceding year. 

 Interesting and valuable data were se- 

 cured from each of the five projects 

 listed below : 



1. A study of Mendel's law in cattle 

 breeding. ( Hy the Animal Husbandry 

 Section). 



2. Arkansas dairy cattle improve- 

 ment work. ( By the Dairy Farm Sec- 

 tion in cooperation with the Chemical 

 Section.) 



(By 



the 



3. Apple-breeding investigations, 

 the Horticultural Section.) 



4. Humus investigations. ( 1\\- 

 .Soils Section.) 



5. A study of hunuis and its relation 

 to the physiological activities of the 

 apple. (By the Horticultural and Soils 

 .Sections.) 



During the year the Chemical Sec- 

 tion did not cooperate as heretofore 

 with the Horticultural Section in the 

 apple breeding investigations. In the 

 work connected with the humus pro- 

 ject, particular attention has been de- 

 voted to the study of the evolution of 

 carbon dioxide as a measure of the 

 rate of decomposition of organic mat- 

 ter in the soil. Experiments were car- 

 ried on which involved the treatment 

 of soil with varying amounts of stable 

 manure alone, and with lime. V^ery in- 

 teresting conclusions were reached in 

 this line of investigation. 



The Arkansas cow work continues to 

 be the most extensive investigational 

 work carried on by the Dairy Hus- 

 bandry Section. There are at this time 

 28 animals on hand, including the. first, 

 second and third generation grades by 

 purebred dairy bulls. 



The work on the Adams Fund pro- 

 jects will be continued next year prac- 

 tically without change. 



