120 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



win arid Greening apples do well "away down east," so long as 

 we continue to grow apples in Illinois; and some of us have 

 learned full well that what is most certainly true as to the local 

 character of the varieties herein named, is equally true of 

 hundreds of other tested fruits, including everything from 

 the apple down to the end of our whole list of fruits. 

 And we hope that the practical men who have planned our 

 local experiment stations — nine in number for a -single State — had 

 this all important idea in view, and the more closely they fol- 

 low its teachings the shorter and the more sure will be their road 

 to ultimate success. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EXPERIMENT STA- 

 TIONS—WHAT CAN BE DONE. 



BY ARTHUR BRYANT, PRINCETON. 



With the increased appropriation to our Society by the Legis- 

 lature have come new responsibilities and duties to be performed. 



One of the conditions when the increase was granted, was, 

 that at least $1,000 should be annually expended in experimental 

 work. It has been made my duty to tell: " What can be done 

 at these experimental stations that have been formed by the 

 Executive Board." 



It will not be a difficult matter to tell what can or may be 

 accomplished in this line, but I think it will take much more 

 thought and study to say what is best to do, or rather to under- 

 take to do, at the present time, and with the present means at 

 command. 



At the outset the Board saw that the limited amount of money 

 would not admit of any very elaborate, extended or costly work 

 being undertaken. 



Three experimental stations were established in each district 

 of the State (nine in all), and it was decided to confine the 

 experiments mainly to the testing of new varieties of fruits, the 

 spraying of fruit trees for the destruction of insects, and such 

 other work as could be carried on at the different points without 

 any great expense ; the main idea being to keep the work within 

 the means provided, and still show the greatest and most prac- 

 tical results. With some it may seem that the experimental 

 work has been spread over too much territory, and it would have 

 been better to have confined it to fewer points. 



The fact that our State extending through so many degrees of 

 latitude, and having so varied a soil and climate, could not 

 depend on a single experimental station, and secure results that 

 would be satisfactory to other portions of its territory, induced 

 the committee having the matter in charge, to accept the present 



