Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1932 [PAGE 17]

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193°\

U N I V E R S I T Y O F ILLINOIS

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Advisory Committee on June 28, 1930. I laid the matter before them with such facts as were at hand and asked them to investigate and make a report to submit to you at this meeting. The Committee undertook to do this and appointed a sub-committee to do the work. I submit herewith the report of this sub-committee. This includes certain statistical information prepared by the Comptroller of the University setting forth the general facts relating to this whole matter. It seems to m e that there is no sufficient ground of complaint. I ask that you make this statement and the report of the sub-committee a part of your record.

REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CONCERNING THE POLICY FOLLOWED BY THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION IN DISPOSING OF FARM PRODUCTS

July, 1930 After investigating the situation with respect to the sales of agricultural products by the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Illinois your committee makes the following report. It is the opinion of the members of your committee that the research activities of the Agricultural Experiment Station, although extensive and numerous, by no means meet the persistent demands made by the people of the state in the way of solving the farmers' economic problems. In many cases the material used in research projects is utilized for class room instruction, thereby conserving and utilizing fully the resources of the institution. The discontinuance of present research projects would constitute a retrenchment that would be to the disadvantage of the state as a whole and to the local community in particular. The policy of the College of Agriculture and Agricultural Experiment Station has been to keep the production and sale of farm products at the smallest volume consistent with teaching facilities required for the student body and the pressing needs for the solution of problems vital to Illinois agriculture. The facts and figures taken from the records of the University indicate that such a policy has been followed during recent years. Fluctuations in prices of individual commodities cause fluctuations in value of sales of those commodities when the volume of sales remains constant. Furthermore, to meet some specific urgent problem, a large increase m a y be shown in the sale of a particular commodity for one year. Such was the case in 1928-29 when the scabby barley problem was so acute. Special cattle feeding experiments were conducted to help solve the problem. As a result the sales of cattle more than doubled in one year but the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Illinois received much favorable comment both within and without the state, on account of its research in this field. Sales of cattle for 1929-30 were again normal. Sales of poultry and poultry products have increased greatly in the last four or five years and are accounted for by the growth of the poultry division from a rather neglected part of the College and Experiment Station to one more nearly comparable to the position poultry holds in the work of other mid-west institutions and its economic importance in the state. W e find no undue increase in the total volume of activities nor in any one line or lines. Where increases have been made, w e find them justified. (See Exhibit A.) The lack of facts and information with respect to the total volume of farm products handled in the Champaign-Urbana communities precludes an authoritative statement as to the extent of competition between the University and any line of business in these commodities caused by the sale of by-products of the College of Agriculture and Agricultural Experiment Station. The information available indicates that the sales by the University are a very small fraction of total sales of any farm product in the communities. The fact that sales of farm products by the University are not tending to increase in volume would indicate that conscious effort is being exercised to keep troublesome competitionBtosoldC.)andat wholesale thedealers at wholesale vegetables, throughcidersalesroom now poultry of either to local not on the Champaign-Urbana retailthe (See Exhibitsareand locally eggs, dairy and greenhouse, or the retail milk routes. animals are in disposed flowers, orpotatoes, fruits, market.vinegar the Agricultural Building, products, Grain, at retail and meat and Meats, the minimum.