Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1874 [PAGE 27]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

Illinois Industrial

University.

m

COLLEGE OF AGEICULTURE.

FACULTY.

The B E G E N T , Professor B U R R I L L , Professor SHATTUCK, Doctor P R E N T I C E , Professor STUART, Professor T A F T , Superintendent F L A G O .

SCHOOLS.

School of Agriculture; School of Horticulture.

CONTRIBUTIONS.

Many manutacturers have favored us with donations of implements and it is hoped this will continue until the large room devoted to the tools shall become a rich museum of all that is most important. Appeal is made to friends everywhere for assistance in furnishing the fruit and tree plantations with the fullest possible stock, in the building and furnishing of the green-houses and conservatories, and in the enlargement of the scientific collections in the arboretum and botanical garden. The plants now in the houses and upon the grounds have been catalogued, and will be forwarded to parties wishing to exchange or contribute. I t requires a vast amount of money, time and skilled labor to make a large collection of useful agricultural and horticultural plants, yet the importance of such a collection at the University is recognized by all who are interested in these pursuits. New varieties of grains, vegetables, root crops, seeds and live plants may easily be sent and will always be thankfully received.

SCHOOL OF AGBICULTUBE.

OBJECT OF THE SCHOOL.

The aim of this school is to educate scientific agriculturists. The frequency with which this aim is misunderstood by the community at large, demands that it shall be carefully explained. Many, who look upon agriculture as consisting merely in the manual work of plowing, planting, cultivating and harvesting, and in the care of stock, justly ridicule the idea of teaching these arts in a college. The practical farmer who has spent his life in farm labors, laughs at the notion of sending his son to learn them from a set of scientific professors. But all of this implies a gross misunderstanding of the real object of agricultural science. It is not to teach how to plow but the reason for plowing at all — to teach the composition and nature of soils, the philosophy of plowing, of manures, and the adaptations of the •different soils to different crops and cultures. It is not simply to teach how to feed; but to show the composition, action and value of the several kinds of food, and the laws of feeding, fattening and healthful growth.