Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1920-07-22
SERVICE STATIONS
VALUE TO FARMING
Story of Wisconsin's Develop
ment Closely Linked With
Growth of Experiment
Station.

nlOu-d inherent KIM OF service SLd-
tion-One that serves farms and farm
ers. 1t is a service station that has
as its ideal more farms better farms
and farmers, better farm methods.
This service station, commonly
known as the Wisconsin experiment
developing the agricultural resources
of the state and building a better Wis
consin for every Badger.
Besides meeting these present needs
this service station is looking and
planning ahead-to be ready with serv-
ice when the need and the time come,
a year, five years, ten years or more
from now.
The men and women on the staff Of
the agricultural experiment station
work daily at the farmers problems.
Many Of them have had years Of serv-
dee and training to fit them for their
work. Often the tremendous value
and importance Of their work is not
realized in full until years afterward.
All the knowledge and the results Of
experiments at the station belong to
the farmers for the asking. Action
and enthusiasm are making the eX-
periments profitable to the state.
Team work is taking the results Of
the work to the farmers of Wiscon-
sin.
Selection Checks Disease.
Wisconsin farmers are encouraged
ITO say "shoW me-" for the experiment
station men have proved that they
can deliver the goods.
Take the service which the sta
tion is giving toward the control Of
plant diseases, which have caused such
tremendous losses throughout the state
at times. Investigation shows that a
group Of highly trained specialists are
not only developing methods for'check-
ing and preventing the diseases, but
also producing strains of plants by
careful breeding that are resistant to
disease. Every one has likely noticed
in field of diseased plants that there
are some individuals that are able to
"Stand up" under fire. By selecting
seeds from such plants and by cOntinu-
ing the selection for a period of years,
resistant" strains of plants are pro-
duced in accordance with laws Of he
redity. Cabbage growers testify to the
enormous aid which these investiga-
tiOns have given them. The same work
IFS being done with tobacco, with pO-
tatoes and with grains and forage
Crops Already this one type of work
on cabbage sick" and tobacco sick"
mas restored these crops to areas that
could no longer grow them.
Live stock, with it's team mate, dairy
ing, plays the biggest role in Wiscon-
sin farming. What work is being done
by the station to aid this aspect of the
state agriculture, and what do the
Investigations show?
They show that the two vitamines
contained in some foods and which are
necessary to animal life were discov-
cred, due in large part to investiga
tions conducted at the Wisconsin sta
tion. Better rations, healthier stock,
and better live stock are possible as
result of the work of these expert
chemists and scientific stock feeders.
"A lowering in the cost Of producing
stock for market reflects in a very
practical way the manner in which
they have been of service.
Six Of seven dairy tests used in the
dairy industry Of the country today
Were produced at the experiment sta
ton at Madison.
Serums and Cultures for Farmers.
These studies and investigations are
only part of the story of how the ex-
pertinent station is aiding the farm
ing interests. Hog cholera serum made
=. by the station is used to protect swine
<against one Of the worst scourges in
live stock husbandry. Enough pure
Cultures of various legumes bacteria
such as alfalfa, clover, soy beans and
the like, to inocufate many thousands
of acres have been sold at cost price
year after year, In increasing amounts,
to Badger farmers These men would
not send their money to the station for
such material unless they knew it was
worth their time. money and trouble.
The, development Of superior strains
of purebred grains and forage crops at
the station has not only made the state
famous for its seed grains, but has
aided in improving these crops in
Wisconsin to considerable extent.
Soil analysis and surveys, the develop
ment of new cash crops such as hemp,
flax, sorghum and many other pieces of
work have been carried out and put to
practical test on Wisconsin farms.
But problems relating to cultural
methods and production are not the
biggest problems at the present time.
Economic problems now occupy
much more important part. This ex-
pertinent station was one of the first
TO take up this line of work in agricul-
tural economics. which was earlier held
to be outside of the province of an ex-
pertinent station. 1t has conducted
cost-ef-production studies which have