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Show USU Experiment Station Director Outlines Program The vastly important agricultural agricul-tural and livestock experiment program of the Utah State University, Uni-versity, much of it through the facilities at the College of Southern South-ern Utah, a branch of the state institution, was outlined here last Tuesday by Wynne Thome, director of the Agricultural Experimental Ex-perimental Station. Mr. Thorne delivered the address during a visit to the local college by President Pres-ident Daryl Chase and a number of deans and experiment station leaders. They visited the college ram nus the vallev farm and the' college ranch during the day. Mr. Thorne pointed out that the experiment station, a research re-search agency, is engaged In re-search re-search activities in every part of the state. Much of the total program pro-gram is In cooperation with oth-er oth-er state and federal organizations, organiza-tions, he pointed out, and every program is made to serve as many purposes as possible and each activity is tied in with local lo-cal people who can profit most from the results. Local Program "Here in Cedar City." the speaker said, "most of the research re-search program is associated with the College of Southern Utah. The research is conducted conduct-ed by the Experiment Station. The college uses the same facilities facili-ties in its education program, but the Bureau of Land Management, Man-agement, tW Soil Conservation Service and the Atomic Energy Commission and local citizens have all contributed." He pointed out that in the range livestock research program at C S U there are about 1000 ewes representing five different breeds. One purpose is to breed better sheep for this area. The studies are directed also toward developing improved sheep and range management practices that will increase the lamb crop and wool production. Rang Land Facilities near here for range livestock research include a 7,-800 7,-800 acre winter range near Mo-dena, Mo-dena, furnished by the Bureau of Land Management; 1000 acres ot farm land and spring-fall pasture pas-ture owned on the valley farm, plus 300 acres there and 500 acres at Summit owned by the B L M, and 3,000 acres of summer sum-mer range near the head of Coal Creek Canyon. Results to date indicate in-dicate that through breeding and management "practices greater profits can be obtained from sheep. To cite only one result: re-sult: the average lamb crop In this !? than 90 I'.nb per hundred eyes. In our operations opera-tions this year the lamb crop was 164 lambs per hundred ewes. Information In-formation on the practices making mak-ing this possible la freely available avail-able to all. Panoultch Project At Pangultch the Experiment Station operates a 150 acre farm to study Improved feed production produc-tion methods and the breeding of beef cattle. There are maintained a 60-cow breeding herd and their offspring. Through improved management practices feed pro-ductlon pro-ductlon has been doubled In spite of the severe drouth. This year with more water feed yields have tripled. The breeding stud-le. stud-le. on Hereford cattle are show- ing that cattle growers can Increase In-crease profits through breeding for rapid efficient gaining ability abili-ty in addition to the traditional selection of breeding animals for body type. In these studies two animals that would rate the same by showroom standards have differed greatly In efficiency efficien-cy of gain. Crop Tests He also stated that many tests for improved crop varieties are beir. conducted in this area. "This year we have four major field experiments on Alfalfa. In Washington County Lahonton alfalfa al-falfa has been found superior because be-cause of resistance to nematode and spotted aphid. This year 2,-000 2,-000 acres of Lahonton alfalfa were planted In Washington County alone," he said. We also have nine experiments experi-ments with different corn varieties varie-ties and six with barley varieties, near here this year. "We probably know more about natural renewable resources, resourc-es, of this area than of any area of the state. The soils have been surveyed In most of Iron. Washington Wash-ington and Beaver counties, and In Kane County In cooperation with the S C S. This area has over 177 of the arable soils of Utah, but because of limited water less than 7 of the cropped land of the state is here. Water Data Socurod "Through the cooperative efforts ef-forts of the Experiment Station, the State Egjneers Office, the Water and Power Board and the Utah emplyoment Security Commission Com-mission the water resources of the Iron, Washington and Kane county areas have been Thoroughly Thor-oughly studied. The data will soon be printed," he continued. "The better use of our underground under-ground reservoirs Is one of the great tasks confronting us. For example, about 6,000 acre feet per year are now runnlnj to waste from Coal Creek. It appears ap-pears likely that this water could be saved and used by spreading it on the canyon fan and allowing allow-ing it to enter the underground reservoir beneath the city and adjacent valley," the speaker speaker said. "History bears witness hat countries rise and fall according tor how they respond to the challenge chal-lenge of their environment. Near Cedar City are tremendous untouched un-touched natural resources. Will history mark us as another failure fail-ure that did not meet the nl- |