Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1870 [PAGE 28]

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XII

here presented. But it is earnestly to be hoped that, with more completeness of the improvements on the experimental farm, and less continuous and exacting demands of preliminary work, that proper experiments and observations may be commenced at the University, and farther means be spared to be spent in this direction. In saying this, however, I would by no means underrate the importance of the annual gatherings of the farmers of the State begun under the auspices of this University. They have a high value as a means of gathering facts and disseminating knowledge of the best practices in the art of agriculture, and are a great stimulus wherever they go. Among the observations and experiments desirable to be instituted, and for which no sufficient provision has been yet made, are the following: I. Meteorological Observations: 1. Scientific, after the method now pursued by the Smithsonian Institution, whose observations, so far as they go, may be also used. 2. Practical, after the plan adopted by the United States Signal Service, making it applicable, however, to agricultural as well as marine affairs. This can best be done, probably, by securing the services of the telegraph companies and a more general distribution of charts showing the current weather, like those of the Western Union Telegraph Company. I I . Mechanical Experiments: 1. With strength of materials. 2. With different motive powers. 3. Trials of agricultural implements used for pulverization, seed sowing, cultivation of the growing crop, harvesting, threshing, cutting and cooking of animal food, etc. 4. Trials of mechanical implements used in production and manufacture, such as mining, lumbering, reduction of ores, working in metals, woods and clays. I I I . Experiments in physics; particularly the effects of different degrees of light, heat, electricity and moisture on seeds and plants. IV. Chemical experiments; particularly the analysis of soils, of clays and other earths used in the arts ; of coals, lime and build-