608 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The Graduate School of Agriculture. — The plan for the Graduate School of Agricul- 

 ture, to be held under the auspices of the Association of American Agricultural Col- 

 leges and Experiment Stations, at the University of Illinois, July 2-28, 1906, has been 

 approved by the committee on graduate study, and arrangements are now being 

 made to carry it out. The Director of this Office will act as dean, and the faculty 

 will consist of specialists drawn from the agricultural colleges and experiment Stations 

 and this Department. 



Courses will be given in agronomy (including the physics, chemistry, and bacteri- 

 ology of soils and field-crop production), horticulture (together with plant physiology 

 and pathology relating thereto), breeding of plants and animals, and zootechny (with 

 special reference to meat production). Every effort will be made in the choice of 

 men and subjects to have the strongest possible presentation and discussion of the 

 results recently obtained by research and capable of reduction to pedagogical form. 

 Emphasis will be laid on the local facilities and environment to bring out the numer- 

 ous advantages which the University of Illinois has to offer to such a school. 



During five days in each week the forenoons will be occupied with lectures and the 

 afternoons will be given to seminars and demonstration exercises, in connection with 

 which there will be much opportunity for the consideration of the questions w r hich 

 naturally are uppermost in the minds of advanced students. On Saturdays confer- 

 ences will be held on general topics in agricultural education, and excursions are 

 planned to the stock yards and packing houses in Chicago, and to typical Illinois 

 farms. 



Public opening exercises will be held during an evening of the first week of the 

 session, at which it is expected that addresses will be given by the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, the chairman of the committee on graduate study, the president of the 

 University of Illinois, and the dean of the graduate school. Other evening exercises, 

 largely of a social character, will be provided for. 



The school will be open to graduates of colleges and other persons recommended 

 by college faculties as qualified to profit by advanced instruction in agriculture. All 

 correspondence relating to membership in the school should be addressed to Prof. 

 Eugene Davenport, Registrar, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois, Urbana, 

 Illinois. 



Conference on Irrigation Work. — A conference of 14 men connected with the irriga- 

 tion and drainage investigations of this Office was held in Washington beginning 

 January 16. The field men in attendance were all connected with the investigations 

 of irrigation as related to dry farming, a new work for this Office and one which is 

 assuming so much importance that it seemed necessary to have a special conference 

 regarding the methods to be followed. All phases of the irrigation work were con- 

 sidered, however, with results of so much value that it is hoped to make these meet- 

 ings a feature of each year's work hereafter, having as large a part of the force present 

 as possible. 



The various subjects considered were assigned to committees, which presented 

 reports upon matters relating to the conduct of the investigations. Copies of these 

 reports and an account of the meeting will be sent to all persons connected with the 

 irrigation work, so that they will in a large measure share in the benefits of the con- 

 ference. One important point decided upon was the publication of a series of manuals 

 of popular, practical character upon the following subjects: (1) Manual of Irriga- 

 tion Practice (Revision of Office Kxpt. Stas. Bui. 145); (2) A Manual of Canal 

 Management; (3) A Manual of Water Measurement and Distribution in Irrigation; 

 (4) Methods and Cost of Pumping AVater for Irrigation; (5) The Construction of 

 Farmers' Reservoirs; (6) The Irrigation of Sugar Beets; (7) The Irrigation and 

 Drainage of Rice Fields (Texas and Louisiana) ; (8) Some Special Forms of Organiz- 

 ing Irrigation Enterprises; (9) The Terracing and Drainage of Hillsides; (10) The 



