Cotton-seed meal was quite extensively introduced as a stock food in the northern states last winter by reason of its heavy production in the southern states and the severe drouth prevailing in the corn belt in 1894, and consequent high price of corn and other grain feeds. The introduction of this feed brought the station many inquiries concerning the feeding value of cotton-seed meal and the practicability of adopting it in feeding rations. We have fed it to the extent of six and seven pounds per day to dairy cows and fattening cattle with good results and no apparent injury. This work is still in progress and will be reported in bulletin 29, soon to be issued, and the present report will be confined to the results of feeding cottonseed-meal to hogs. In February of this year the writer purchased of a neighboring farmer a thrifty, even lot of fifteen Poland China shotes weighing 1480 pounds. They were bred and reared alike and selected from a bunch of twenty-five, and furnished a desirable lot for experimentation. In order to detect any possible difference due to individuality, the fifteen shotes were on February 23rd, divided into five lots of three each and fed alike for two weeks on uniform rations of corn and cob meal and butter-milk, and weighed weekly. This period gave again of 61, 54, 46, 50, and 54 pounds respectively per lot in fourteen days, and the individual record showed that every shote was gaining and doing well in all respects. The feed given in the preliminary period consisted of 4 pounds each of corn and cob meal and four pounds of butter-milk per head daily.

Rainfall (including melted snow) at the Experiment Station, from March 1, 1894 to March 1, 1895.

In March 1894 we bought ten head of Aberdeen Angus, and ten head of Short-horn steers, coming two years old that spring. They averaged perhaps, twenty-three months of age when we begun feeding them under exact conditions April 1st of that year. We had in view inquiry into the feeding qualities of the two breeds when selected so that they would be fairly representative animals, as near the same age as possible, and fed as nearly alike as they could be in all respects. We also desired to get further indications with regard to the effect of feeding corn meal on pasture, and its profitableness, and note the effect of changing feed. Six of the Short-horns were purchased from James A. Kelley of Newton, Jasper county, and four head were selected from herds in Story county; the ten head costing four cents a pound live weight. The ten Angus steers were bought from Evans & Son of Mills county, selected from a herd of one hundred head, at a cost of five cents a pound live weight. While these were fairly good cattle, neither lot was as good as we desired. We had difficulty in finding good specimens of both breeds. The Short-horns were fatter than the Angus when they came to the college, as a lot, because half of them had bee:1 more liberally fed on corn during the winter. Both lots were thoroughbreds, or high grades. The experiment will be treated in three periods. The first from April 1st to June 1st; the second period from June 15th to July 16; and the third period, August 1st to February 1st, nine months in all. The fifteen days from June 1st to 15th was the changing period from grain to grass, and the fifteen days from July 16th to August 1st was the changing period from grass back to grain, which periods will be treated separately, as a changing period is always a losing period, if the change is radical.

The co-operative work with farmers of the state in studying sugar beet culture was less extensive in ’94 than in any season since the work was begun in ’91. Only 21 farmers applied for seed, and only 11 sent in samples of beets in the fall for analysis. The dry season was very unfavorable, both for quantity and quality of crop. Nevertheless, the results were better than expected, and show that in parts of the state, at least, a fair crop of beets of fair saccharine quality can be grown in Iowa even in as dry a season as may ever be expected. According to reports of the U. S. Weather Bureau, the average rainfall of the state during May, June, July and August was only 6.75 inches, only half inch more than it was during the two months of September and October, viz. 6.24 inches. [The local observations at Ames—reported at the end of this bulletin—showed even more extreme conditions; the rainfall during May, June, July and August being only 6.40 inches, while during September and October it was 8.28 inches.] Thus the ideal conditions as to rainfall, for producing beets of good saccharine quality, were reversed in order of time; these conditions being abundant rain during spring and early summer, with but little during the autumn. The abundant rains of last autumn, continuing until near time for harvesting the beets, kept them growing at the time when, had they made normal growth previously, which as a rule they had not— they should have been ripening, ie. developing sugar from the products of previous growth and assimilation. Thus while the autumn rains increased the yield of beets, they did not make conditions favorable to the development of a high quality, as measured by sugar contents and purity.

The irequent poisoning from eating the root of Cowbane (CicIda maeulata, L) are not infrequent in the state of Iowa and elsewhere. It affects man, cattle and horses. Every now and then, there are accounts of poisoning from “wild parsnips” in our papers. The writer has at various times received communications with specimens of “wild parsnips.” The subject is of considerable interest and especially so because the plant is widely distributed in Iowa and a large number of people are not aware of the poisonous nature of the root. Spotted Cowbane is a member of the Carrot family or as it is known botanically, Umbelliferae.