142 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



INDUSTRIAL GEOLOGY. 



BY PEOF. A. J. COOK. 



We have learned iu these Farmers' Institutes, which now have been in opera- 

 tion for twelve years, that he who is privileged to speak is sure to address men 

 who think, read, and study; intelligent men, who keenly appreciate anything 

 in science or practice, es)3ecially if it has a practical ring to it, or in any way 

 touches the everyday affairs of life. Thus I need offer no apology for my 

 theme to-night. Geology, which has for its purpose the giving of a full history 

 of our earth, from the dawn of its creation all down the ages, even to our own 

 day, is one of the grandest of sciences. Indeed, it includes all the natural 

 sciences. In the early days of the earth's formation it was one grand chemical 

 laboratory, where test tube, beaker, and crucible were large as the world itself, 

 and where precipitation, solution^ filtration, and sublimation were great as the 

 substance on which they had to work. And what a mineralogist has Geology 

 been, for in her cabinets were all rocks, and in her Avork rooms was the gold 

 and silver massed in vast rock beds, and the emerald and diamond fashioned 

 from baser rock to fairest gem. She laid her hands on the decaying brush 

 wood of fens and marshes, and transformed them into our vast mines of coaL 

 She set up her mighty stills, and stored in rocky vaults the oil and gas to await 

 the era when mind could unlock the vaults and use the precious contents to 

 light the world. Nor was Geology less a Botanist. She saw the first sea weeds^ 

 then the flowerless land plants, and finally rejoiced in the beautiful and varied 

 flora of the present age. Nor was her eye less keen for the higher animal 

 life. She saw the simple sea, animals, then the more complex, and ages after 

 the huge land animals, and finally the grand harmony of animal life which we 

 all so much admire to day, and of which we form a part. 



Geology, as a science, is hardly older than some who are present here to-night. 

 And though one of the youngest of the sciences, what a revolutionist she has 

 been. She found the world believing in a seven literal days' work of creation. 

 She has proved, so that now no intelligent student of the subjects doubts her 

 dictum, that the world was ages in its development, and that each of Moses' 

 days was a vast period. Instead of 24 hours, it was millions of centuries. She 

 has proved that our world home, instead of flashing forth finished and complete 

 atlihe Divine fiat, has been slowly evolved from the simple to the complex 

 under the controllmg impulse of just such laws as we see working about us to- 

 day. Thus in demonstrating the evolution, under God's laws, of our world 

 home, she has prepared us for the reception of the still more startling truth : 

 the evolution of the myriad inhabitants of that same home. 



Geology also shows that man reaches back not a few thousand, but many 

 thousands — perhaps a million or more — of years. All these startling truths, 

 brought out by this science, and so thoroughly proved that even laymen have 

 accepted their verity, are enough in themselves to make the science and its- 

 teachings a matter of general interest to all who enjoy study and research, and 

 are eager to "know and understand the truth. 



Again, as geology shows us just how our earth has been fashioned, how its 

 great fields have been plowed and harrowed, just what fertilizers nature has 

 made use of, under just what conditions the land has been tilled, it becomes 

 evident at once that this is a practical science. Not only may we look for direc- 

 tion as to where the mines and the quarries may be found, but we may also 



