Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1898 [PAGE 227]

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1893.]

PROCEEDINGS OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

227

The four teams and two colts owned by the University are in excellent condition and are doing us credit. Late in the fall I traded one of our old teams which had never been entirely sound for $75.00 worth of feed. They would have, brought more in the spring, but we got all they were worth and saved the cost of wintering. Whether the institute work done by the members of the Station staff should be considered college or station work is perhaps a question. In any event the call for attendanca upon institutes is something enormous and it is certainly growing. I have attended ten such meetings besides our own state institute and the state institute of Indiana, at Huntington. The sort of work is valuable to our staff, because it keeps the individual in touch with the people and their needs. It is valuable to the institution because it serves to carry our work to those engaged in actual business and it commends our efforts to them and builds up in them a belief in the University; but it is a serious invasion of time and simply reducesthe winter season to a state of affairs in which we can but keep afloat with daily duties without doing much good work. Those of us who teach, and most of the staff are so_engaged a part of the time, find great difficulty in securing time for even the least amount of careful study of literature or for original investigation. The State Farmers' Institute Association is getting into much better working order, and it is to be hoped that dates may be so arranged another winter that less time will be wasted in travel. The State Institute just closed was in every way profitable to the Station, as it was to all interests of the University, and resolutions were adopted asking for an agricultural equipment commensurate with the needs of the subject and with the standing of Illinois among the great agricultural states. The ravages of fire have cost the Station not far from $3,000.00 within the space of a year. The labor of restoring the chemical laboratory has been an arduous one so far as funds are concerned, and has compelled a degree of reduction of estimates that is to be regretted. By oversight no request has been made for a restoration of the loss at the hands of the Legislature. This should be done at the next session. Again, Illinois should undertake to print the results of Experiment Station work, as is done in so many other states, not by the State printer, but by augmenting our printing fund. If this were done, it would not only allow of doing more work here, but would put into circulation much material that is tied up for want of publication funds. Thirteen states make annual appropriations to the experiment stations in amounts varying from $2,500.00 to over $96,000.00. At the time of reorganization of the Station the office of Secretary was abolished. By common consent Mr. Pillsbury was to continue to edit the bulletins as heretofore, both in the interest of uniformity, and because he is peculiarly fitted for this important work. One has only to notice the grave errors and inconsistencies that creep into the bulletins of many states, or to be acquainted with the services of Mr. Pillsbury as a "layman" editor of technical literature to appreciate the value of this work; and because of this fact, and because he is already rendering us this service, I would propose that his name be added to the staff as "editor of station literature." Summary of leading work for the year and of recommendations: Botany.—Smut of oats and fungus diseases of the apple. Horticulture.— Fungicides, orchard cultivation, and a new plum orchard. Agricultural Physics.—Nitragin experiments, corn breeding, leguminous crops on permanent plats, sugar beets, and continuation of experiments in southern Illinois. Dairy.—Variations in milk; obtaining and delivering pure milk. Live Stock.—Tuberculine test and a careful feeding experiment with three cows. Printing aided by State; Editor of Station Literature. Upon recommendation of the Advisory Board, I also recommended experiments with the sunflower and the artichoke.