Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1888 [PAGE 12]

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PEOCEEDINGS OF BOAED OF TRUSTEES.

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The trial of ditching machines in June last on the University farm?, under the auspices of the •State Board of Agriculture, was a gratifying success in many ways. Of the appropriation of $1,600 made for purchase of cattle, there has been expended: For two Hereford cows and a calf, $700; for two Holstein-Friesian cows and calf, $330; for 18 two-year-old steers, $540; a total of $1,570. The freight charges are not included in this, and will bring the total to within a few dollars of the amount specified. The receipts from the farm during the three months have aggregated $2,061.76. These have been divided as follows: Cattle, $1,525.05: hay, $355.57; pasture, $46.45; butter and milk, $24.33; sheep, $18.71; payment by Messrs. Clark and Chester of sale expenses, $48.00; corn, $20.35; miscellaneous, $23.60. The expenditures for the three months have been $3,343.63. These have been as follows: Pay roll, $752.11; cattle, $1,704.55; spring wagon and harness, $150.00; farm wagon, $50; mower, $70; lumber, $95.65; feed, $49.49: timothy, clover and millet seed. $44.83; ditching, $26.95; sale expenses and other advertising, $230.95; students 1 labor, freights and miscellaneous, $290.37. Respectfully submitted, G. E. MORROW, Professor of Agriculture.

The report of Professor Burrill was submitted and received:

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, September 14, 1886.

Br. S. H. Peabody, Regent: SIR—I respectfully submit the following account of work, etc., in the horticultural department :for the past season. A full report of the forest tree plantation and of the experimental orchard is i n preparation, and I beg leave to embody these in the report of the Board of Trustees, to be soon presented for publication. The year has been fairly favorable for our crops and plants. In most instances good growth was made. There has been comparatively small loss from injurious climatic effects and diseases and injuries from insects, parasitic fungi, etc., have been less than the ayerage.

SMALL FRUIT:*.

The strawberry crop was not large on account of the limited growth of the plants last season, but was considered fair and proportionally larger than the market prices. This fruit has never sold so # low in our local markets as during the last two seasons. For a part of the time the returns barely •covered the expenses of picking and marketing, and the same report came from growers throughout our own and neighboring States. Still the strawberry with us clearly keeps the lead as a profitable small fruit crop. Though the receipts are small, the final balance is upon the proper side of the account. New plantations have been made rather exceeding the old ones plowed up. Tests were again made upon the alleged effects upon the pulp of the fruit itself of cross fertilization. It will be remembered that report was made last year that no visible difference comd be detected in the size, form or color of the berry on account of the pollen used in fertilization. This was from trials upon the pistillate variety, Crescent seedling, in the open air, planted side by side of different hermaphrodite sorts and at a distance from other kinds. This season this mode of experimentation was again tried with the same results. The Crescent produced by the side of Sharpless—a very large, irregular fruit—could not be distinguished, when examined in quart boxes, from those gathered near a wild variety with very small berries totally unlike the former. But it may be justly asserted that foreign pollen carried by the air might interfere with this test. The two rows used in this experiment were 20 to 30 rods from any others and southward, hence on the side from which the prevailing winds came. The Crescent row was continuous; that containing the fertilizing plants was broken between each kind by a space of two or more rods. But to test more carefully the matter, cross fertilizations were practiced by carefully applying pollen from special kinds by hand and then covering the trusses with man ilia-paper bags. Here again Crescents were used as the pistillate plants, but care was observed to remove any rudiments •of stamens which existed. The number of these crosses were not large, but apparently successful results attended the trials of three very distinct kinds. When the time for fertilization was passed, the bags were removed and the fruit matured under natural conditions. No difference could be made out in the fruit, by the closest inspection possible. The "seeds 1 ' as seen from the outside appeared all alike. Unfortunately, we did not think soon enough to remove these and more critically examine them. Afterward an examination of the "seed" of several varieties showed them to be •exceedingly different in size and shape. A collection of a dozen or more kinds of these was preserved for further use. In this connection I may mention some artificial crosses made upon the wild crab apple, with pollen from cultivated kinds of apple, the practice being like that just described for the strawberry. These crab fruits preserved exactly their usual appearance. The seeds are preserved for growth next spring. Blackberries and raspberries produced good crops. Further studies have been made upon the so-called "orange rubt11 affecting both these kinds of fruits. The attempt made to propagate the disease by sowing spores of the fungus suspected of being the alternate or winter-surviving form of that causing so much damage in June was not successful. Plants were grown in the greenhouse for this purpose with a view of artificially starting if possible the disease before the spores became disseminated in the outer air. It is positive that spores of some kind do germinate on the new leaves in spring time and produce the disease. The latter is not hereditary as supposed in the plant. Only the leaves and succulent stems are affected. The spores produced so abundantly in June do not live beyond a few days after maturity. There must be some alternating form not yet positively identified. But continued observations more and more confirm the idea that this alternate form is iound upon the same plants late in the season and is known as Punccinia Peckiana—a, very different