Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1888 [PAGE 81]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

84

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

Notes were taken during the season up an sixteen varieties of strawberries. Among these but one has seemed equal to crescent fertilized with Capt. Jack during several years trial. This exceptional one is the old green prolific. The berries in 1887 of this last much surpassed those of the cresent which were peculiarly knotty and uneven from imperfect fertilization. Bidwell, Piper. Capt. Jack and Sharpless are the best among the others which bave been fully tried. Old iron claa perhaps suffered worst from the drouth. Longfellow was badly injured from same cause. Bubach and Jersey queen have not been sufficiently productive for profit. Glendale gives a good crop, but the plants rust badly and the large calyx is so discolored in same way as to injure the appearance and so the sale of the fruit. No plant among the number sets so many berries as James Vick; but with us, the fruit is small and of little value. The experiments undertaken again to test the possible influence on the "fruit 11 of the strawberryr" of pollen from different varieties were failures thisyear,mostly,it is thought, from the scarcity of pollen of any kind; but such.information as was gained seemed to confirm the former results, that no difference could be observed. Experiments of similar kind were made upon maize and squashes, muskmelons and cucumbers. Witti these latter cucurbitaceous plants over fifty artificial crosses were made, but from these only two fruits were secured—one a cucumber crossed with a niuskmelon, and the other a squash crossed by another squash of different variety. In the cucumber no seeds wereproduced. It showed nothing exteriorly of the niuskmelon appearance. The squash developed i ormally, but showed no certain characteristics of the variety from which the pollen was taken. Theseeds of this squash have been saved to test next year the effect of the cross upon them. With maize very different results were obtained. In t h i s case the effects of crossing show conspicuously in the kernels the first year. May 19 there were planted in each of three well separated plats two kinds of corn, viz.: A red pop-corn and Murdock , a well-known yellow dent variety. In the first plat there were five rows, four rods long—two of Murdock and three of pop-corn, planted alternately. The tassels were carefully removed from the Murdock, but as there was about ten days difference in the time of flowering of the two varieties there was little chance for crossing. A plat of white dent stood fourteen rods away and tasseled about same time as the pop-corn. At the harvest about one-third of the ears from the pop-corn stalks were white, sparsely mixed with yellow kernels. The others were red, and both had the true pop-corn appearance. . A second plat contained two rows of pop-corn and two of Murdock, but was only five rods northwest of a small plat of white dent corn. In this second plat the tassels were pulled out of the popcorn and left in the Murdock. About one-third (17 to 36) the ears from pop-corn stalks were red popcorn and two-thirds white or white and yellow mixed. It is remarkable that the red ears had very rarely a kernel of another color. Plat No. 3 consisted of two rows of the red pop-corn and Murdock mixed, five rods north of white dent corn. Tassels all allowed to mature. Ears proved to be, on pop-corn stalks, in the proportion of 15 to 38 red and white, or white and yellow mixed. In no case did the Murdock variety or the white dent show signs of the pop-corn cross. This red pop-corn had been grown on the farm the year preceding and was believed to be pure seed. The Murdock was taken from seed that yielded pure corn elsewhere. Now while the grain of the pop-corn showed unmistakably the results of foreign pollen, the cob retained its characteristic size and appearance. The corn kernels are comparable to the so-called seeds of the strawberry, while the cob bears the relation to the kernels that the pulp of the berry does to its seeds. While, therefore, the corn experiment shows the direct change due to pollen of a noiiceable part of the production, it does not render more probable a similar change in the pulpy part of the strawberry. During the season earnest studies were made upon many plant diseases, but, with one exception, none of these are completed. Many indications were found of the probable cause of the scab of potatoes, but further researches are needed to confirm results attained. A serious disease of field corn, first brought to our attention by Professor Forbes from a field belonging to Mr. Joseph A. Skeavington, of Albion, 111., was presumably traced to the inimical action of a living vegetable organism Tioiind abundantly in the diseased parts. The malady is wide-spread, as we subsequently found, and seriously reduces the crop. Young corn plants are now growing in the greenhouse 1for the further study of this disease. Contributions were also made to the knowledge of the "rot" of tomatoes, and plants are also now in the greenhouse for further study. The disease supposed to be well made out is a parasitic affection of broom-corn and sorghum. The diseased spots on the stalks, leaves and especially leaf-sheaths, become red and the tissues finally die. The roots are affected in the same way; and it is upon these organs that the principal mischief is done—the loss amounting in the aggregate to a very large sum. The minute parasitic organism lives over winter in the old stalks and roots. Crops are much more liable to suffer on land upon which sorghum or broom-corn grew the year before. Maize is is not affected by this organism, though it is probable some other grasses are preyed upon as is sorghum. An account of these investigations has been written up and the printed paper is herewith presented. (Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, pp. 30-36).* It is my duty-to inform you that the woodwork of the greenhouse is badly rotted. The frame for the support of the roof is so far gone in many places that it is even now too weak to be secure. During the summer snch repairs as could be made were attended to; but it will require extensive replacing of old parts by new before long, if indeed new roofs throughout, so far as the wood is concerned, are not demanded. No recommendation is now made concerning this repair, and no immediate action is asked. The facts are presented that proper provision may be made when delay can be no longer permitted with safety to the plants. Refer ence is made to the report of the Business Agent for the financial condition of the department. Respectfully submitted, T. J. BURRILL. *The paper may be found later in this volume.