Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1906 [PAGE 134]

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108

UNIVEESITY OF ILLINOIS.

[June 23

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE; AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 11. (a) That the recommendations of the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the Experiment Station, as set forth in the accompanying report of the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the Experiment Station, as to salaries and promotions within the College of Agriculture and on the staff of the Experiment Station be approved. That the consideration of the estimates of the needs of the various departmenis and interests for the ensuing year be postponed until the next meeting of the Board, and that in drawing up this final estimate, provision be made for those expenditures which are clearly and specifically incurred on account of the College of Agriculture and the Experiment Station and also for the lair share of general expenses of the University which may be properly assigned to the College of Agriculture and Experiment Station, and especially that some provision be made for taking care of a larger part of the expenses for instruction in chemistry for the students fh the College of Agriculture. (b) And that the appropriations be made for the work of the College and Station in accordance with the request of the Dean of the College and Director of the Experiment Station, according to the table headed "Appropriations" in said report; and, further, that the receipts received by the University in connection with the special departments be appropriated to the use of the respective funds, as indicated in the last paragraph of the Dean's report.

URBANA, ILLINOIS, May 14, 1905.

Edmund J. James, LL.D., President of the University of Illinois: DEAR SIR—I have the honor to submit for your consideration and transmission to the Board of Trustees the following report of the conditions of the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Station, together with the recommendations for the ensuing year. GROWTH OP THE COLLEGE AND STATION. The rapid growth of the agricultural interests of the University in recent years is unprecedented in educational history. Six years ago we had but twenty students and six instructors; the work of investigation was limited to the government appropriation of $15,000, and we were housed wherever room could be found, generally in basements and attics. We have more instructors now than we had students then, for the college has grown to number 406 students, with twenty-five teachers, offering eightyfour distinct courses of technical instruction. We now have four permanent buildings, a fund for college and building purposes amounting to $90,000 per year and one for research amounting to $110,000 annually. Over forty people of college training are devoting their entire time to technical agriculture, either in the College or Station, or both. These are the largest numbers in men and money involved in this Work at any single point in the world. WHY WE HAVE SUCCEEDED. Our complete collapse under the responsibility and strain of this sudden growth has been almost universally predicted in other states, even by our best friends. That this has not occurred is due to the following reasons: 1. The growth was the spontaneous and natural result of a determination of the farmers of the State to make this a leading college of agriculture and to promote the highest possible development of agricultural practice through scientific investigations by the Fxperiment Station. 2. Special funds were appropriated for special purposes, and back of each was an organized group of men interested both in the- University and in that particular line of agriculture. 3. We organized, not with many departments, but with few; each with its own funds and well defined lines of work, and each headed by a man of exceptional training, of high personal quality and of tireless energy.