40 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



ture in deciding upon the expediency of adopting what we recom- 

 mend, to consider the condition of the treasury. 



Dr. True remarked, that the topic under consideration involves 

 principles that are difficult to discuss so as to convince the uncon- 

 vinced. It is difficult to point out specifically the benefits that would 

 arise from a geological survey of the state. Public sentiment has, 

 for many years, felt that it should be done ; but various causes have 

 served to prevent its completion. 



Massachusetts, New York, and other states have adopted the 

 policy of developing their natural resources, and are now reaping 

 an abundant harvest. New York alone has expended well nigh half 

 a million of dollars to complete the survey of her territory ; in this 

 respect, perhaps, she as a state, stands foremost in the world. 



There are many unsettled questions which geologists have referred 

 to a complete survey of Maine for a solution. Every river from 

 the St. Croix to the Piscataqua needs to have its history recorded. 

 Its soils, its muck beds, its marine manures, its rocks, its minerals, 

 its fossils, its mines, its quarries of slate and lime and marble, its 

 forest lands, all need the scrutinizing eye of the mineralogist, the 

 chemist, and the geologist. The quarries of marble and slate which 

 are so valuable to Vermont, on recent investigation are found to 

 extend over into northern Maine, Not a foot of soil on our terri- 

 tory is unworthy the investigation of the man of science. 



Then there is a negative influence which is of no little value. 

 The excitable and visionary man is deterred from carrying out 

 schemes which he has laid, in violation of the well known laws of 

 nature. Men will not be left to hunt for gold where there is none. 

 Some secret nook in yonder mountain will no longer be reported as 

 the place where a mass of gold or silver was found but never made 

 known. Pyrites will not be mistaken for the precious metal, nor 

 tourmaline for coal. Men will not then dig into solid granite for 

 coal, because the geologist tells them better. 



I have no doubt the labors of the Board of Agriculture, and 

 especially the survey of our secretary in Aroostook in ISoT, saved 

 to the state last year a million of dollars worth of men and capital. 

 It might cost five thousand dollars to continue the geological survey 

 of the state, but I believe that for every one thousand dollars ex- 

 pended in this way, there will be a saving of one million of dollars, 



