Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1898 [PAGE 355]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1898.]

EXPERIMENT STATION.

355

AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION.

To the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. GENTLEMEN:—By action taken by your honorable body at your meeting held June 9, 1896, the organization of the Agricultural Experiment Station was changed so that instead of a Board of Direction, to which the staff of Station officers were responsible, the office of Director was established, and this officer was charged with the entire responsibility for the work and business of the Station. By your appointment I was made Director of the Station and have continued in charge.

PRINCIPAL LINES OF WORK.

The energies of the Station have been directed principally to experiments in cattle feeding to determine variations in animals; variations in milk; production of pure milk; breeding of Indian corn; methods of cultivation of Indian corn; chemistry of the corn kernel; testing different treatments on permanent plats of prairie soil; the white clay soils of Southern Illinois; the sugar beet for Illinois; spraying for insect and fungus enemies of fruits; observations on varieties of apples, pears, and grapes; smuts and their prevention; the smut of broom-corn, sorghum, and Indian corn. I beg leave also to refer you to reports in detail made in March, of 1897, and March, of 1898.

PUBLICATIONS.

Eight regular bulletins, Nos. 45 to 52, inclusive, and one special bulletin, and the tenth and eleventh annual reports have been published and distributed during the two years at an expense of $2,065.32. The bulletins contained in all 252 pages. The annual report for the years 1896-7 and 1897-8 contained 18 and 16 pages respectively. One thousand copies of each were printed. Besides these eight circulars were published. The articles contained in the bulletins and circulars were as follows: Bulletin No. 45, 17,000, July, 1896, 32 pp. Varieties of Apples. Bulletin No. 46, 17,600, January, 1897, 24 pp. Experiments with Corn. Attempts to grow Crimson Clover. On the Improvement of Retentive Clays-, Drainage of the So called " H a r d P a n " Lands of Southern Illinois. On the Importance of Physiological Requirements of the Animal Body; Results of an Attempt to Grow Cattle Without Coarse Food. Special Bulletin, 2,500, March, 1897, 4 pp. Smuts and Their Prevention. Bulletin No. 47, 17,000, March, 1897, 48 pp. Broom-Corn Smut. Bulletin No. 48, 17,000, April, 1897, 16 pp. The San Jose Scale in Illinois. Bulletin No. 49, 18,000, January, 1898. The Sugar Beet in Illinois, 52 pages, 13 illustrations. Bulletin No. 50, 17,000, February, 1898. Cost of Production of Corn and Oats in Illinois in 1896, 24 pp.