UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871 [PAGE 244]

Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871
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236 which would lead me to suspect that proper precautions had not been taken. In regard to cultivation between the plats, I, perhaps, might have stated the matter a little clearer. If you have spaces between the plats, they are there for the purpose of separating the plats, and if you have something growing there, it is not a fair separation. If weeds are allowed to grow, some of the spaces would contain more than others. What I mean by cultivation is, the spaces should be kept clean and free from weeds, and nothing be allowed to grow upon them, because if you leave plants to grow thpon them they will extend their roots to the plats, and defraud the crops by drawing the nourishment from them. In regard to putting up cattle and feeding. If the conclusions I have drawn from our experiments are correct, the putting of the same weights into pens would not answer the purpose. I might have in one pen 500 pounds of very small animals, and in another 500 pounds of animals considerably larger. But if you are taking the larger class of stock, there might be 1,000 pounds in one pen, consisting of five animals, and 1,900 pounds in another, consisting of one animal. You could not compare them if there was a difference in age, and a difference in condition. The matter of individual peculiarity of animals is a very important one. I found where I had two or three animals in a pen, there was no increase. In another pen adjoining, where there was the same number of animals, there was a remarkable increase. I said, " W h y is this V I weighed the animals separately, and found one animal was losing and another gaining. If you want to know tbe value of any feeding substance, it will not answer to take the averages of the animals. The amount of food required to produce a given increase is what we want, and I would have each animal's food by itself, so that when that animal made no return at all, I would know it was out of condition, and not a fit subject for experiment, and throw it aside. There is another reason why I would put animals in separate pens. They do much better. When the animal gets contented in the pen in which he is placed, with none to molest, he eats his food quietly and lies down. Where there are two or three together, perhaps one is quarrelsome, and is continually disturbing the others by not allowing them to eat or to lie down. It is with animals as it is with persons. One is restless, and another is inclined to be quiet. When you have a large number of persons together, you find it exceedingly difficult to keep the room still. It is so with animals. One animal gets nervous and keeps the others confused and unsettled.