29 



I'RESENT XEEDS AXI> FUTrUK DEVKLOI'M KNT. 



The priiu'ipal present needs of the work, apart from a fund sutticieiit for 

 its maintenance on existing lines, are (1) more elaborate provision for chem- 

 ical investigations, (2) a salary fund sufficient to enable me to add an ex- 

 perienced botanist to our present staff, (3) a site of three or four acres neiar 

 the foot of Quiver Lake, and (4) provision for two principall:)uildings on shore 

 and for a small system of permanent ponds with a pumping equipment for 

 their maintenance. 



The necessary chemical work will undoubtedly be provided for 1)y the 

 Chemical Survey of the waters of the State if the funds available for that 

 r^urvey are made sufficient to enable the University chemists to meet our 

 wishes in this respect. As already said under another head in this report,' 

 chemical analyses are a matter of the first importance to the whole investiga- 

 tion we have imdertaken. They will have a very great incidental value also 

 outside our own field because of their bearing upon questions of public health 

 as affected by pollution of the waters of the Illinois River by sewage and other 

 waste from the towns above, and ultimately from Chicago by way of the 

 drainage canal, 



A knowledge of the plant life of the river is scarcely second in importance 

 to that of its animal life; a fact which has been evident to me from the be- 

 ginning, but which, nevertheless, I have been compelled largely to ignore 

 because of lack of funds to provide for continuous botanical investigation. 

 Several competent zoologists were already in our employ as assistants in the 

 State Laboratory of Natural History, and zoological investigation could con- 

 sequently be provided for with little difficulty and at a relatively small ex- 

 pense. Furthermore, the smaller animal forms — the I'otifers and the Protozoa — 

 can be successfully studied as a whole only in the living state, while micro- 

 scopic plants are capable of preservation in condition to make their subse- 

 quent determination practicable. Our plant collections can consequently still 

 be worked up by a botanist having an expert knowledge of aquatic forms. 

 It is very much to be desii-ed that another year may not be allowed to pass 

 without provision for this indispensable part of our general subject, without 

 which, indeed, final conclusions concerning the oecology and economics of our 

 aquatic biology cannot possibly be reached. 



The efficiency of our corps of workers and the quantitj- of the results of 

 their work would be very greatly increased if provision were made for their 

 continuous maintenance on Quiver Lake. Our daily trips to and from the 

 town proved very wasteful of time and opportunity, and have added greatly 

 to the expense of running the Station launch. Furthermore, notwithstanding 

 the great usefulness of our floating laboratory, it is in some respects insuffi- 

 cient for the more advanced stages of our work, and should be supplemented 

 by a laboratorj- building in the immediate neighborhood. Experimental re- 

 searches will presently require a larger equipment than that now at our dis- 

 posal in the jars and small aquaria to which we are at present confined. 



