Ways to declare Objective-C variables. See a commented version at http://stackoverflow.com/a/14906215/412916

Animal.h

@interface Animal : NSObject
{
    NSObject *iProtected;
@package
    NSObject *iPackage;
@private
    NSObject *iPrivate;
@protected
    NSObject *iProtected2; // default access. Only visible to subclasses.
@public
    NSObject *iPublic;
}

@property (nonatomic,strong) NSObject *iPublic2;

@end

Animal.m

#import "Animal.h"

// Same behaviour for categories (x) than for class extensions ().
@interface Animal(){
@public
    NSString *iNotVisible;
}
@property (nonatomic,strong) NSObject *iNotVisible2;
@end

@implementation Animal {
@public
    NSString *iNotVisible3;
}

-(id) init {
    self = [super init];
    if (self){
        iProtected  = @"iProtected";
        iPackage    = @"iPackage";
        iPrivate    = @"iPrivate";
        iProtected2 = @"iProtected2";
        iPublic     = @"iPublic";
        _iPublic2    = @"iPublic2";

        iNotVisible   = @"iNotVisible";
        _iNotVisible2 = @"iNotVisible2";
        iNotVisible3  = @"iNotVisible3";
    }
    return self;
}

@end

Cow.h

#import "Animal.h"
@interface Cow : Animal
@end

Cow.m

#import "Cow.h"
#include <objc/runtime.h>

@implementation Cow

-(id)init {
    self=[super init];
    if (self){
        iProtected    = @"iProtected";
        iPackage      = @"iPackage";
        //iPrivate    = @"iPrivate"; // compiler error: variable is private
        iProtected2   = @"iProtected2";
        iPublic       = @"iPublic";
        self.iPublic2 = @"iPublic2"; // using self because the backing ivar is private

        //iNotVisible   = @"iNotVisible";  // compiler error: undeclared identifier
        //_iNotVisible2 = @"iNotVisible2"; // compiler error: undeclared identifier
        //iNotVisible3  = @"iNotVisible3"; // compiler error: undeclared identifier
    }
    return self;
}
@end

@implementation Cow(blindAcess)

- (void) setIvar:(NSString*)name value:(id)value {
    Ivar ivar = class_getInstanceVariable([self class], [name UTF8String]);
    object_setIvar(self, ivar, value);
}

- (id) getIvar:(NSString*)name {
    Ivar ivar = class_getInstanceVariable([self class], [name UTF8String]);
    id thing = object_getIvar(self, ivar);
    return thing;
}

-(void) blindAccess {
    [self setIvar:@"iNotVisible"  value:@"iMadeVisible"];
    [self setIvar:@"_iNotVisible2" value:@"iMadeVisible2"];
    [self setIvar:@"iNotVisible3" value:@"iMadeVisible3"];
    NSLog(@"\n%@ \n%@ \n%@",
          [self getIvar:@"iNotVisible"],
          [self getIvar:@"_iNotVisible2"],
          [self getIvar:@"iNotVisible3"]);
}

@end

main.m

#import "Cow.h"
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    @autoreleasepool {
        Cow *cow = [Cow new];
        [cow performSelector:@selector(blindAccess)];
    }
}