38 Kansas Academij of Science. 



of unifying the work of the investigators — a central organiza- 

 tion from which radiated the varied lines of investigation — 

 and that in our Transactions we have in a body records that 

 without some such clearing-house would be widely scattered, 

 and probably many of them lost ; also, without the stimulus of 

 some such organization many of the records of work would 

 never have been published. 



Having thus reviewed the past, let us turn to the future. 

 Has the need for such an organization ceased? The character 

 of the work has indeed changed, but there exists even a greater 

 need of scientific investigation, and in many more lines than 

 in the early days of the state, and this need will increase as 

 our civilization becomes more complex. We now have state 

 boards, commissions, etc., that make their reports through dif- 

 ferent channels, but in each of these there are questions with- 

 out number of a purely scientific character that find no place 

 in such reports. Such questions should continue to be worked 

 out in our meetings and the results published in our Transac- 

 tions. The work in botany has changed to the search for or 

 breeding up of plants better adapted to our economic needs, 

 and to combating injurious parasitic forms. The immediate 

 usable results of such work should of course be given to the 

 people in bulletins, but the scientific investigations should not 

 be lost. These should find a place in our Transactions. In the 

 most ordinary experiment in plant breeding, even one that 

 produces no commercial results of value, often some exceedingly 

 important new facts in heredity are brought to light that 

 should be given publicity. Then there are numberless new 

 developments just ahead of us. What thoughtful person who 

 considers the development in the cement industry, with its 

 almost revolutionary effect on engineering and architectural 

 construction, will dare to say that we have reached the limit 

 of our mineral resources? Yet this is a thing of the present, 

 undreamed of when the Academy was organized. Our clays 

 have only begun to yield their wealth, and in every line we are 

 merely at the beginning of our development of mineral re- 

 sources. In engineering there is an immense field opening. 

 We in Topeka are still buying 10-cent electricity, while the 

 Kansas river is carrying by each day enough of the same 

 article at 2 cents to supply our every need and add greatly to 

 the comfort of living. Irrigation, conservation and control of 

 flood waters are also problems of the immediate future. There 



