No. 17] FOURTH BIENNIAL REPORT 2J 



questions whose answer requires new methods of investigation. 

 There are changes also in the arts which depend upon the ap- 

 plication of the sciences, as well as in the sciences themselves. 

 New forms of raw material become valuable, new modes of utiliz- 

 ing well-known materials become practicable. On the economic 

 side, as well as on the purely scientific side, arises a necessity 

 that the work of a Survey which had been supposed to be com- 

 pleted should be done over again. 



If a State Survey is recognized as a permanent bureau, it 

 can publish, from time to time, supplementary reports correcting 

 and amplifying its previous work as may be necessary. It can 

 be ready also to give attention to particular investigations which 

 may have a special importance, for economic or other reasons, at 

 some particular time. Moreover, the work of a Geological and 

 Natural History Survey can be carried on much more economi- 

 cally by the plan of small appropriations maintaining a permanent 

 organization, than by the plan of attempting to complete the 

 work in a few years and then doing it over again a generation 

 later. The experience of our Connecticut Survey illustrates well 

 the economy of this method of procedure. Field work can be 

 done in the summer vacations by college professors, teachers, 

 and others who are willing to do a certain amount of such work 

 for very small compensation. Investigations can be made and 

 bulletins can be written in large degree in odds and ends of 

 time, by men who receive salaries for work in the colleges and 

 schools or in museums and other scientific institutions. Under 

 such conditions men of a high grade of ability and attainment are 

 willing to offer for publication the result of their investigations 

 for merely nominal compensation. The amount of valuable 

 material already published, and the amount which is ready or 

 nearly ready for publication, by our Survey, in comparison with 

 the very small cost, is a striking illustration of the economy of 

 this method of procedure. If, on the other hand, the work of a 

 Survey is to be completed, and final reports presented in a few 

 years, it is generally necessary that a number of competent men 

 should be employed to give practically their whole time to the 

 work. They must be paid salaries which will justify them in 

 resigning any official positions which they may hold and taking 

 their chances of securing other employment when the work of the 

 Survey is finished. 



