iowa. 97 



lines of work. 



The principal lines of work at the Iowa Station during the past year 

 have been a continuation of those previously established and have 

 included the selection and development of range-bred horses; feeding 

 experiments with steers, sheep, and pigs; dairy investigations, espe- 

 cially bacteriological studies, fermentation tests, and comparative work 

 with five different breeds of dairy cows; experiments with field crops, 

 including cultural and breeding experiments with corn and various 

 experiments with oats, barley, spring wheat, winter wheat, sorghum, 

 rape,- kohl-rabi, soy beans, and sugar beets; horticultural work in 

 hybridizing fruits and testing cover crops for orchards; botanical 

 investigations, especially studies of grasses of the State, fungus dis- 

 eases of plants, and herbicides for weeds; bacteriological studies of 

 fruits and waters; entomological investigations; chemical analysis of 

 grasses, soils, dairy products, and adulterants of dairy products. 



The station is cooperating with the Bureau of Chemistry of this 

 Department in sugar-beet investigations and in testing varieties of wheat 

 sent out by the Department. The botanist is stud} r ing the grasses of 

 the State in cooperation with the State geological survey, which pub- 

 lishes the bulletins. He is also making a careful study of the time at 

 which the plum is actually fertilized, it being claimed that there are 

 several weeks during which this may occur. Last spring 250 head of 

 range lambs were purchased and an experiment conducted to determine 

 the practicability of finishing such lambs for the midsummer market. 

 Those that were finished were used to determine results from feeding 

 different grain rations as compared with the results when grass alone 

 was used. Another interesting experiment is that with a bunch of 

 steers which are being fed on condimental foods to test the real value 

 of such material. 



Twice within the year the Iowa college and station suffered severely 

 from fire. In December, 1900, part of the main building burned and 

 the divisions of botany and horticulture lost much of their apparatus 

 and scientific collections. In October, 1901, the station barn was 

 destroyed, with a loss of $12,000. The horse barn (PL I, Hg. 1) recently 

 completed by the college is 40 by 100 feet finished in hard pine, 

 hard maple, and oak, and furnishes accommodations for 25 horses and 

 ample storage room for carriages, harness, grain, and hay. The adja- 

 cent sto' >T : -judging pavilion is circular in form, 65 feet in diameter, 

 has f » seating capacity for 300 students, and a judging pit 50 feet in 

 d&meter. At the beginning of the fiscal year Prof. John Craig, hor- 

 ticulturist of college and station, resigned to go to Cornell University 

 and was succeeded in May by Prof. H. C. Price, of the Ohio State 

 University. Prof. John A. Craig, assistant director and animal hus- 

 bandman, resigned to retire from college work and was succeeded by 



H. Doc 334 7 



