Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-04-10
Public Opinion on Iowa Subjects
as Reflected in the Iowa
Newspapers.
The News OF Iowa Esom Hun.
dreds Of Different Towns
and Communities.
Feeding Test at odebolt.

Feeding Test at Odebolt.
A dispatch from Odeoolt to Chicago
live stock paper says:
The first twenty-eight day period OF
the great cattle feeding test at the es-
Establishment of A. E. Cook here, under
the auspices of the Iowa experiment
station, ended on Monday. Professor
Marshall, who is in charge of 1t, arrived
Saturday from Ames to weigh up the
cattle for the first time. Actual Feed
ing began March IL and the cattle Rave
been making good progress ever since.
In addition to the original 200 head an
additional bunch of twenty has been
included. These will be fed on corn,
and in addition have tie run of a forty
acre blue grass pasture with the object
of testing the merits of that method OF
feeding. The 200 head will get no
grass or corn fodder. At present ro',gn-
age is supplied in the shape of wheat
straw.
No experiment ever undertaken In
the same field has attracted such wide
attention as this. Letters are pouring
in from all over the corn belt and re-
suits are awaited with expectancy
Since Professor Marshall selected the
cattle from herd of 500 on the Cook
farm the weather has been exceptional
ly favorable and no sllrinkege has oc-
CURED. Now that spcing is here me-
THEOLOGICAL set backs are not to be Ia
ken into calculation. II is expected that
the animals will be thoroughly finished
end ready for market by the middle or
latter part OF July.
Visitors to the farm, interested In the
experiment, are numerous daily. All
are welcomed, but are informed In un :
equivocal terms that ro information as
to comparative gains will be given out
until the experiment is at an end.
Among those most onspicuously on the
anxious seat are the stock food men
whose wares are being tested. Such is
the general interest that they are prac-
tically out Of business until results are
announced.
The cattle are being pushed right
along, having been started off on fifteen
pounds of snapped corn daily per head
and will be fed to the limit. r. j. Kin
ger, who is doing the feeding, is COM
petent man and was member of the
team that won the spoor trophy at
Chicago last fah. He is voluble on the
Importance of the test, but oysterlike
in his silence when asked for results up
TO date. Said Professor Marshall: De-
spite an avalanche of Importantly we
have determined to make nothing of
that nature known until the work is
done To make a serial story of 1t
would do no good, but 1t would ham
per the work and perhaps render 1t
useless. After the final weights have
been taken and the cattle sold an OFF,
cial bulletin will tell about 1t. Breeders,
feeders, editors, vendors of stock foods,
stockyard men and Others are among
those who manifest their anxiety by
frequent letters to the experiment sta
ton officials Until conclusive figures
are ready, however, their curiosity will
go unsatisfied Results, Professor Mar
shall estimates, will be announced
about Sept. /.
Mr.. Cook, on whose farm the feed
ing is being done, is one of Iowa's best
known and most successful cattle feed
ers. While the experiment station off,
Gals are in charge OF the feeding he
will determine the tine at which the
cattle will go to market. Mr.. Cook In
variably' ships to Chicago and on that
market these steers are destined to sell.
On that occasion they will secure more
attention than an ordinary drove and
the block test will be announced to a
waiting world. They may go the first
week in July. but perhaps not until the
middle Of that month. Mr.. Cook will
be the judge of the time.
A number of prominent men have an
nounced an intention to take look at
the cattle some time reward the end Of
the feeding period, and the Cook farm
at Odebolt will for several weeks prior
to shipping time become the Mecca OF
the curious in cattledom. A party from
Chicago is expected early in June, but
none will get any information other
than that offered by ocular observation.