Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1873 [PAGE 118]

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114

EEPOET OF COEEESPONDING SECEETAEY.

I respectfully report that after a delay of several months the Fourth Annual Report was received from the State Binder during the summer and autumn. In accordance with our organic law 5,000 copies were printed, 1,000 of which were, in accordance with the law, left with the Secretary of State for distribution to the members of the General Assembly. Of the remaining 4,000 I procured the binding of 1,000 in muslin, 250 of which were left with the Secretary of State for distribution to members of the General Assembly and State officers; 100 copies in paper were sent to the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and 100 to the State Board of Agriculture. The remaining copies, in muslin and paper, have been received at the University. The Fifth Annual Report has been in the hands of the Public Printer for some months, but owing, I presume, to the amount of legislative printing, has not been, so far as I yet know, taken in hand. During the months of January and February, 1873, we have been engaged in holding seven Farmers' Conventions, of about three days' duration each, at Peoria, Jacksonville, Pana, Greenville, Gilman, Kankakee and Beividere. At most of these points a very general and increasing interest was shown in the advancement of practical and scientific agriculture, and the attendance was satisfactory and encouraging. Addresses were made by Dr. Gregory, Professors Burrill, Taft, Carey and Turner, by Dr. E. S. Hull, Mr. B. F. Johnson, H. K. Vickroy and E. L. Lawrence, nearly all of whom gave their services gratuitously, their expenses only being paid by the University, The Illinois Central, Peoria, Pekin and Jacksonville, the St. Louis and Indianapolis, the Chicago and Alton, and the Chicago and Northwestern railroads kindly favored the University with passes to gentlemen lecturing on behalf of the Institution. The Toledo, Wabash and Western made no response to our applications. W. C. FLAGG. EEPORT OF EXPERIMENTS. From the Experimental Department I would make a report of the work of the year 1872. Experiments were made in field culture as follows : 1. Comparing fertility of adjacent plats—repetition of the experiments of 1871. 2. Comparing ordinary and frequent culture of corn. 3. Testing varieties of winter and spring wheat, barley and oats from the Department of Agriculture. 4. Testing the culture of sugar beets, rutabagas, carrots and parsnips. 5. Comparing the culture of corn in hills and in drills at 3, 3£, 4, 4£ and 5 feet. G. Testing six kinds of clover and 21 of grass seeds. 7. Comparing thirty-tive varieties of corn, Hint, white, yellow, calico and red varieties. 8. Comparing corn grown on ground plowed at different depths, from ground not plowed at all to that plowed eleven inches deep and subsoiled, and also trench-plowed. 9. Testing and comparing seventy-five varieties of potatoes received from the Michigan Agricultural College. 10. The comparison and testing of five varieties of broom corn. The season was more favorable than that of 1871 for agricultural production, and the general yields more satisfactory; but I am not satisfied that it was much better for purposes of comparison. A favorable season, hardly less than an unfavorable one, tends to obliterate the natural advantages of a superior fertility in soil, the inherent superiority of a variety and the advantages of a special culture.

EXPERIMENT WITH COMPARATIVE FERTILITY OF ADJOINING PLATS.

The 72 ona-twentieths of an acre plats, and 6 one-fortieths of an acre plats, lying in the northwest corner of experimental grounds, were occupied with a repetition of the experiment of last year. The ground was plowed six inches deep, April 23d; rolled May 2d; marked both ways 4 feet 1 inch by 4 feet 1 inch, May 4th, and planted by hand, four grains in a hill, upon same day between 11 A. M. and 3 p. M. May 20th it was cultivated north and south, with Bakewell's Corn Harrow. On the 27th it was cultivated east and west with the double shovel plow. June 5th it was hoed, thinned where necessary to four stalks in a hill, aiM plowed north and south with a double shovel plow. June 20th, it was cultivated with the same implement east and west, and July 8th north and south. July 13th, it was scraped with a board scraper between the rows.