These monthly sections are to keep you informed on what your agricultural and home economics experiment station is doing and to give you the results of current farm and home research from Iowa State College.

Prices for Iowa farm land and buildings continued to rise in 1957. On Nov 1. 1957, average value of the state's farm land and buildings was $226 per acre- up $6 from the same date in 1956. Values dropped somewhat in the western counties and held just about steady in the north-central area. But strong increases in eastern Iowa and a strong land market in southern Iowa more than offset the declines for an average rise of 3 percent.

We live at the bottom of a vast sea of air hundreds of miles deep. Without this air or atmosphere, neither animals nor plants could exist. There would be no wind, no clouds, no rain, no fire. In short, weather- and life as we know it- would not exist.

You've been hearing more and more about water solubility in phosphorus fertilizers within the past few years. Some folks may have wondered whether water solubility- the actual ability to dissolve in water- is actually important or of value. And if water solubility is "good" in phosphorus fertilizers, when is this factor important?