88 FOREST CULTURE AND 
for comparison the barks, exudations, grains, drugs, 
as raw material? Who would not desire to have 
ready access to a series of oils, whether pressed or 
distilled, whether from indigenous or imported plants ? 
Who would not have it in his power to compare the 
starches, dyes, casts of our luscious fruits, or the 
paper- material, tars, acids, coals of various kinds, 
fibers, alkaloids, and other medicinal preparations 
from various plants ? 
Why not place here a series of all the weapons and 
implements, traced accurately to their specific origin ? 
From such even in many instances we have learned, 
through keen observations of the first nomadic occu- 
pants of the soil, the use of many kinds of wood. All 
these objects, crude or prepared in the multitudinous 
way of their adaptations, ought to be accompanied, 
wherever necessary, by full explanatory designations, 
microscopic sections, and other means of elucidation ; 
while the periodic issue of descriptive indices, detail- 
ing still more copiously the derivation, uses, prepa- 
ration, and monetary value of such objects, will enable 
us to serve the full intentions for which this museum 
section has been formed. 
Lectures, however valuable, demonstrations, how- 
ever instructive, cannot alone form the path of exten- 
sive industrial education ; most minds, indeed, prefer 
to dwell tacitly on the objects of their choice, and 
muse quietly about the adaptability of any of them 
for operations or improvements in which they may 
be specially interested. 
How many inventions have received their first 
impulse from an institution such as we wish to form! 
Investigators, eminent in their profession, will doubt- 
