26 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HISTORY SURVEY [Bull. 



or other local organizations. The Commissioners have not 

 reached a positive conclusion on the question whether a soil sur- 

 vey of great utility to the agriculture of the state can be carried 

 out without greater expenditure than is likely to be practicable in 

 the near future. 



The other project under consideration is a study of the water 

 resources of the state, with a view to the practical question, what 

 measures should be taken for the conservation of such resources. 

 The threatened water famine in some of our large and growing 

 cities emphasizes the importance of this question. 



If either of these projects should be undertaken, there would 

 be need of a decided increase of the appropriation for the Survey. 



THE NEED OF FURTHER APPROPRIATIONS. 



What has already been said in regard to the work accom- 

 plished or in progress and the plans for future work, makes it 

 obvious that the business of the State Geological and Natural 

 History Survey is not rapidly approaching completion. In fact, 

 the State Survey should be recognized as a permanent institu- 

 tion. The Geological Survey of the state of New York was com- 

 menced in 1836. There is at present no organization in the 

 state of New York bearing the title of Geological Survey, but 

 there is a State Geologist who is Director of the Science Division 

 of the Education Department of the state, and on the staff of 

 that Department are a State Botanist, a State Entomologist, and 

 a number of other scientific workers. Under one form of organi- 

 zation or another, the work of investigation of the geology and 

 natural history of New York under the auspices of the state has 

 already been substantially continuous for more than two gener- 

 ations. There is no prospect that it will ever be finished. 



In a number of states, indeed, Geological Surveys have been 

 organized, prosecuted for a few years, and concluded by the 

 publication of so-called final reports. But there can be no final 

 report on the geology, the botany, or the zoology of any dis- 

 trict of country. In those states whose Geological Surveys have 

 published what have been called final reports, enlightened citi- 

 zens and legislators have sooner or later come to see the neces- 

 sity for organizing a second or third Survey and doing the work 

 over again. The sciences of nature are progressive ; new discover- 

 ies from time to time put old facts in new relations, and raise new 



