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 254]

Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871
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246 to the use of mineral phosphates, such as have been used lavishly in Europe, there|is no'telling when the supply will become exhausted in the soil. In the soils of the prairies it is comparatively easy to get a soil of uniform character, but I do not think the experiments in Europe are applicable to this country. In Mississippi, we are able to class our soilsjunder comparatively few heads, owing in a great measure, to the general geological formation. It is the same in Indiana, as far asT have seen, but in many sections" the disintegration of the rocks influences the native soils, and causes the difference, which cannot be taken into account. I believe it is impossible to establish anything more than local laws. Great care should be exercised in the selection of the location of the experiments, and especially land that has been subject to long cultivation should not be selected for experiments, for it introduces an element which it is impossible to appreciate. I confess I cannot agree with the strict separation that has been suggested between experiments of a practical nature and those of a scientific nature. One gentleman suggests we should come as soon as possible to the point, and do something which will tend to check the opposition we are apt to receive. I believe, with Professor Daniels, that we must face the music, and stand up and say we are not able to give general rules that will hold good for all parts. The practical men, so called, are really the most impractical men in the long run. W e must educate the people, show them the difficulties in the way of immediate results, and the good we hope to accomplish by patient and continued effort. It takes time to do all this. An experiment of ten years is not a long experiment, and yet how frequently has it happened that, the eleventh year, that which seemed to be certain and fixed has failed. The Lois Weeden system, which has been so much praised for a dozen years, has finally failed, where it had been continued for a long time. I am pleased with the views of Professor Hamilton. I think averages both in practice at one and the same time, and of a great number of things, is the only mode by which we can secure really practical results. But this opposition, I think, we must leave out of consideration* and if we wish to do good, we must face it bravely. This opposition I have encountered perhaps in as a great a degree as any gentleman present. Before the war I investigated the soil of Mississippi, to learn from what formation it was derived. The question that arose wherever I went, from practical men, was, " Do you pretend you can raise more than I can, or know better how to manage a plantation ?" I do not think we ought to count these people in. We will have to fight them,