Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-03-21
STATE BOARD OF CONTROL VIC.
I. TIM OF MISUNDERSTANDING
~ ENEMIES.
NOT RAISING BEEF CATTLE
ON lNs1lTUrioNALs FARMS
No s'aushtsrins to Be Done, Board
Merely Planning to Build Dairy
'Hsrds-John cownis in Error in A..
tempting to Make Political Capital
Out Of Misunderstanding.
Special to Times-Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
Des Moines, March Adjudication
of the face, in this correspondence
some time ago. that the board Of con-
troll has been engaged the past win
ter in buying registered cattle for the
state farms to take the place of the
common stock in the dairy herds and
that Holsteins are being purchased ex-
clusively, appears to have got the board
into trouble Indirectly.
! This item of news was seized upon
the other day by a local newspaper that
| Is intensely hostile to the state house
and story was published that the
board is going into the business of
raising beef cattle and will try to COM
! pete with the big packing houses in
furnishing beef and pork for the in
situations. Whereupon the same paper
! printed column and half roast of
+! the board for its alleged scheme to
raise beef and pork, written by John
Cownie, who is fixing up platform on
which to run for something or other
and wants to convince the public that
| he is the only man capable of running
! the affairs of state.
All the reference made by any mem
Der of the board at any time to bet
terment Of the herds at the state insti-
buttons has been with regard to the
dairy herds. 1t is the policy Of the
board to improve the dairy herds and
to replace the old common cows with
registered dairy animals, and especially
to purchase only registered Holstein
bulls. so that gradually the quality OF
the herds will be improved. AS for
hogs. the policy Of the state is and long
has been to raise as many hogs as can
be done without extra expense, merely
to use up the slops and refuse of the
institutions.
Not to Slaughter.
1.-THE board Of control has no inten-
ton, nor has at any time had the in
tention, of going into the business Of
slaughtering beef animals and hogs or
raising these with view to supplying
all the meat needed at the institutions"
said Senator McColl, who has had
special charge Of the farm operations
at the institutions. Nobody has at
any time planned to do anything Of
the sort. What we are doing especially
is to improve the dairy herds"
All Of the members of the board have
repeatedly stated to the writer that this
is the exact situation. There has been
no occasion for circulation of any
savage attack on the board because Of
some straw men set up for the occasion.
At the conference held this week, as
has before been reported, the board
had before 1t Professor Stevenson Of
the state college, for consultation as
to the Improvement OF the farm condi-
tons. and thorough and systematic
plan for betterment of these state
farms in every respect will be made.
The board will be guided largely by the
advice of the college authorities and
experts. Already the college has done
a great deal in the way of showing how
the orchards on the state farms can be
made more productive, and now the
work Is to be extended into all lines Of
agriculture.
One thing the board will do as to
livestock and that is to have all the
stock tested before it is purchased
The state has, in the past. suffered
some very great losses because of hav-
ing on the farms infected herds that
had to be slaughtered.