Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1902 [PAGE 125]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

106

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

[July 6,

6. That experiments in cover crops be conducted. 7. That experiments in spraying be conducted as deemed wise by the Station. 8. That the committee should meet at the call of the Director, but that more than one meeting a year is likely desirable. E. Under the "Dairy Section": It was decided that the greater part of the energy should be devoted to field work over the State; that a careful study should be made of the dairy conditions as they exist with a view of correcting wrong practices, and helping in every possible manner to improve dairy conditions. It was suggested that a greater portion of this work had best be carried on in the dairy district of northern Illinois. Experiments to be conducted at the University, so far as funds will permit, were agreed upon as follows, and were thought to rank in importance in the order named. Dairy Cattle. 1. Ridding cows of flies. 2. Determining upon how small a quantity of milk calves can be successfully reared, and the best substitutes for milk as food for calves. 3. Immediate and continued effect of different quantities of the same feeds upon milk production. 4. Wide vs. narrow rations for dairy cows, and the ration most e c o n o m ical for Illinois. Creamery. 1. Determine why some cream will whip while other cream containing the same per cent of butter fat will not. 2. Determine most effective insulation for creamery refrigerators. 3. Experiments on moulds in refrigerators. 4. Determine the species of bacteria that cause butter to deteriorate most rapidly at low temperature. 5. Experiments in making butter from cream which has been frozen. F. Under the "Sugar Beet Section": 1. That the work should be in charge of an experienced man thoroughly posted on v the sugar beet and its methods of cultivation. 2. That the cooperation of a number of representative farmers should be enlisted on whose farms beets are grown. 3. That a happy feature incident to such aline of cooperative experiments would be the progressive ideas encouraged in the farmer and the cordial relations that would develop between the farmers and the Station. 4. The experiments conducted and the data collected should have reference to the variety of beets grown, the methods of fitting the ground, cultivation, time of planting and harvesting, and the tonnage and quality of crop. Regard should also be had to the precipitation and temperature. Specific lines of investigation suggested are: 1. Crop rotation with sugar beets, which crops should precede and which should follow beets. 2. Preparation of soil and methods and time of planting and cultivation of beets. 3. Investigation to determine the types of soil best adapted to sugar beets and value of manure and fertilizers.