130 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATIOX BILL, 1024. 



Doctor Larson. Usually we use metal laths and plaster. This 

 barn will provide feed storage also. M 



Mr. Anderson'. Does the .?20,0f)0 include the equipment *. ' 



Doctor Larson. Well, there will not be very much equipment 

 required — just the building. 



Mr. Anderson. If you are going to keep all your animals there 

 and you are going to keep all your equipment necessary to collect 

 the urine and feces you have got to have some other e(|uipment. 

 have you not ? 



Doctor Larson. We hope to take care of that out of our regular 

 farm funds. 



Mr. Anderson. How many animals will there be in this milk test ? 



Doctor L.VRSON. There will be about 24 in the general preparatory 

 work going into the stalls and perhaps not over 6 or 8 for the special 

 digestion stalls for certain definite periods during the year. 



animal husbandry investigations. 



STATEMENT OF MR. E. W. SHEETS, BUREAU OF ANIMAL 



INDUSTRY. 



Mr. Sheets. The animal husbandry investigations pertain to all 

 other classes of animal, except dairy animals — beef cattle, hogs, sheep, 

 horses, and poultry. There are three items — three projects — which are 

 being emphasized here, for which slight increases have been asked in 

 the total 12 projects. The first one is that of genetic research. Ge- 

 netic researcn, up until about two years ago, consisted of work with 

 guinea pigs almost exclusively, for the purpose of working out certain 

 fundamental principles in genetics. We believe that these problems 

 have given us certain facts pertaining to inbreeding and cross breed- 

 ing that we wish to confirm with respect to the larger animals. 

 We have two projects — one with swine and one with poultry — which 

 will require the services of a specialist to keep the technical and 

 voluminous data on weights, gains, and other information until the 

 experimental animals are mature. This will enable us to detennine 

 certain facts which have practical value to stockmen. This item 



Erovides only the $3,000 for the salary of a specialist. There is now 

 eing spent on genetic research $10,065. 



The other item pertains to nutrition research, which is divided into 

 two phases of work. One is for the investigations with reference to 

 meat animals, including poultry. One line of investigation connects 

 up with the various phases and studies on soft pork. The other is 

 for projects other than soft pork, which include poultry, animal 

 fibers, and certain other nutrition studies to fl(»termiiu> the values of 

 feed in connection with other animal husbandry projects. It is not 

 for starting new projects but for continuing projects now under way 

 just n little further with these same animals which will re(|uire verv 

 little more feed. In other words, we wish to utilize the aniunils 

 which we now have in other experiments, and the same facilities, 

 merely carrying them a step further to get out of them all there is in 

 the way of iufoniiat ion. This would require $3,SS() for the meat 

 iuN'estigations, including poultry and egijs. That would be used, 

 S3.()()() for a specialist and .$SS() for items of ecjuipment and laboratory 

 suj)[)lies, and $2. 500 would be used for an assistant in the ch(Mnical 

 liihoratory to assist with the cheinical analyses in the soft-pork work. 



