32 JOHN J. STEVENSON 



The appropriation was insignificant, and many of the legisla- 

 tors voted for it hoping that some economic discovery might 

 be made to justify their course in squandering the people's 

 money. Yet there were lingering doubts in their minds and 

 some found more than lingering doubts in the minds of their 

 constituents. But when the marls were proved to contain 

 materials which the chemist Liebig had shown to be all im- 

 portant for plants, the conditions were changed and criticism 

 ceased. The dismal sands of eastern New Jersey, affording 

 only a scanty living for pines and grasses, were converted by 

 application of the marl into gardens of unsurpassed fertility. 

 Vanuxem's study of the stratigraphy and Morton's study of 

 the fossils had made clear the distribution of the marls, and 

 the survey scattered the information broadcast. 



Morton and Conrad, with others scarcely less devoted, 

 labored in season and out of season to systematize the study 

 of fossil animals. There were not wanting educated men 

 who wondered why students of such undoubted ability wasted 

 themselves in trifling employment instead of doing something 

 worthy of themselves so as to acquire money and fame. 

 Much nearer to our own time there were wise legislators who 

 questioned the wisdom of wasting money on pictures of 

 clamc and salamanders, though the same men appreciated 

 the geologist who could tell them the depth of a coal bed below 

 the surface. But the lead diggers of Illinois and Iowa long 

 ago learned the use of paleontology, for the lead fossil was 

 their guide in prospecting. The importance and practical 

 application of this science, so largely the outgrowth of unap- 

 preciated toil in this country as well as in Europe, is told best 

 in Professor Hall's reply to a patronizing politician's query: 

 '^And what are your old fossils good for?" "For this: Take 

 me blindfolded in a balloon; drop me where you will; if I can 

 find some fossils I'll tell you in ten minutes for what minerals 

 you may look and for what minerals you need not look." 



Many regard botany as a pleasing study, vv^ell fitted for 

 women and dilletanti, but hardly deserving attention by 

 strong men. Those who speak thus only exercise the preroga- 

 tive of ignorance, which is to despise that which one is too old 

 or too lazy to learn. The botanist's work is not complete 



