[23] 



The kind of experiments should be based upon the experience ac 

 quired by farmers in the region ; discussed with reference to the scien 

 tific examination of the region, its soils and other resources, by the 

 State Survey; and the mode of conducting them, the special precau 

 tions to be observed, etc., should be carefully considered beforehand 

 with the aid of all the light that science and practice can throw upon 

 the subject. 



CONDITION OF THE STATE SURVEY. 



I am often asked : Is the Agricultural Survey completed ; if not, 

 when will it be ? 



That depends altogether upon what it is expected to do for the de 

 velopment of the natural resources of the State. I can now tell you, 

 or any stranger wanting to settle, what minerals or other useful mate 

 rials can, and cannot, be found in the State, and ivhere. I can give him 

 a general idea of every county, or part of a county, he may ask for, as 

 to kind and quality of soil, timber, water, etc., so far as traveling the 

 usual routes, and visiting all the chief settlements and other points of 

 interest indicated by inquiries along the routes, will give such knowl- 



The gaps existing when my report of 1860 was published, have, in a 

 great measure, been filled up by the gentlemen who have since carried 

 on the work; and a report supplementary to, or comprehending the 

 former one, should be published as soon as all the office work is com 

 pleted. 



(Here the speaker exhibited and explained a map of the State, 

 colored so as to show the geological and agricultural divisions.) 



But while while I am able to give all this general information, I am 

 still in a great degree unable to answer vitally important questions of 

 detail. Without the information given by the work of the survey, we 

 should be altogether in the dark, even as to the questions to be settled 

 and the experiments required for that purpose. As it is, we are able 

 to ask questions intelligently, and with reference to the actually exist 

 ing state of things in each section of the State. But the practical 

 answers to these questions, while foreshadowed by the scientific work 

 done, still require the test of practice, and this test I propose to make 

 by the co-operation of the Agricultural Societies with the State College 

 of Agriculture, where instruction is based upon the extensive collection 

 representing the geological, agricultural and industrial features of the 

 State as they ARE, and not as they might be supposed to be, from an 

 outside point of view ! 



