Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1892 [PAGE 60]

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PROCEEDINGS OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

63

The agriculturists of Illinois are occupied, first, in producing wealth by tillage*of the sril, most extensively in field culture; and very extensively in the garden, the orchard and the vineyard. Secondly, those who are occupied in field culture are also, and of necessity, interested in the processes of converting these products into more intensified forms of food for mankind either for the shambles, or in the dairy. From this generalization have sprung up the lines of Station work chiefly followed under the four heads of Field Experiments, Feeding Experiments, Dairying Experiments and Horticultural Experiments. To the oversight of each of these departments a standing committee of the Board of Direction has been assigned. The field experiments have justly been deemed fundamental to each of the next two, the feeding of field products for the production of flesh or of milk, so t h a t the dairymen's interests, for example, have been cared for in all this line of work, as well as those of the producer of beef or of pork. These lines by no means include all t h a t might have received, with entire propriety, some of the attention of the Station. If the question were one of urgency, the Station might very properly give attention, for example, to the methods of irrigation and the proflts thence to be derived. I t has not analyzed commercial fertilizers, because the farmers of Illinois have little occasion for their use, and because the law provides other means for this end. I t has not undertaken observations in meteorology, in the large way, because t h a t duty appears to be sufficiently performed in other channels. I t has not established a department of entomology, because by its side already exists one of the best equipped departments in the land. I t has not undertaken the sugar question, because it judges t h a t already t h a t has been thoroughly exploited in this state. I t has sought to seize such vital issues as are most important to the farmers of Illinois. The number of different experiments undertaken has been 119. These are not all to be taken as of equal importance, but each is intended to discuss some detinue question, simple or complex, and each is known by its distinct number. These may be classed as follows:

Begun. Field experiments Feeding experiments Dairying experiments Horticultural experiments Miscellaneous experiments

47 19 2 34 17 119 Now g o - R e p o r t e d ing on. on. 38 9 2 30 15 94 27 2 *2 4 5 40

*Five reports have been made.

Fifteen bulletins have been published, filling 496 closely printed pages, and containing 41 articles, each a partial or full report on some experiment. Three annual reports have been issued, containing fifty-six pages. Several sheets of articles prepared for press use have been sent out. As the work progresses the press upon the pages of the bulletins will be constantly greater, as more experiments come to a stage which will authorize publication. The number of pages issued in 1888 was 36; in 1889, 252; in 1890, 100; in January and February, 1891, 108. The issues are paged in one volume, which will be closed by July 1, 1891, and furnished with a title page and index. Subsequent volumes will be closed whenever the quantity issued makes a book of convenient size. The Station enjoys peculiar advantages because it stands as a department of the University, and therefore has, free of rent-charge, the use of all the lands it has need of, and of a convenient and spacious suite of rooms. By this means it is possible t h a t the whole of its annual income