43 



features, and, stranger still, of its drainage systems. In a general way we recog- 

 nize the lowlands of the State are located in the southwestern counties, while the 

 highland regions, if they can be dignified, are in the eastern-central counties ; we 

 know there are chains of hills in the south and prairies in the north, but beyond 

 these facts we know very little. 



We are familiar with the two great drainage systems of the State, but of the 

 minor details essential in the working out of local jiroblems we have absolutely 

 no data — at least none that are at all available. In an attempt last year, in the 

 sanitarj^ laboratories at Purdue, to make a contour map of the State, the paucity 

 of data was strikingly apparent. Had it not been for the railroad levels, not 

 «ven an approximation could have been reached. It is not necessary to say more 

 than that a moment's reflection will suggest the far-reaching application and value 

 of this work. It is also manifest that the accomplishment of such work is only 

 possible through the intelligent co-operation of the members of a body such 

 as this. 



I have purposely omitted thus far any mention of the opportunities that open 

 to biologists. From my point of view they are so numerous and of such impor- 

 tance that they are almost self-evident. Fields that have already been entered show 

 themselves broadening as the work advances. And the work already done sug- 

 gests yet further worlds for conquest. The biologist still has much to do in the 

 line of plant and animal diseases, infinitely more in the line of sanitation. The 

 accomplishment of yesterday in these lines serves merely as the incentive for the 

 work of to-day. There is little danger that work of this character will be neg- 

 lected. There are, however, other problems, the solution of which depends upon 

 a patient gathering of facts almost innumerable, and an equally patient study of 

 these facts in their true relations — problems which by their mere statement carry 

 little idea of their real importance. Systematic botany has, I presume, in the 

 opinion of most people, about as little to do in the realm of practical aflFairs as 

 any branch of knowledge. Such an opinion is doubtless true if systematic botany 

 consists, as is the popular conception, in the mere cataloguing and naming of 

 plants. The systematic botany of to-day is, however, far more than this; it 

 involves studies of plants in their relations to soil and rainfall, to heat and light, 

 to air and mechanique, to each other, to animal life. More and more clearly out 

 of the great masses of facts being collected in ecological studies is the truth be- 

 coming apparent that plants stand as the sure sign of the natural agricultural 

 capacity of the soil upon which they grow. 



Allow me to quote from Mr. Corille's "Bota7iy of the Death Valley Expedition," 

 a report, which is a model in every way. After showing that trees and shrubs 



