present meeting of the members. If the Society should conclude 

 to make such jilterations, the Board will sug^-est some additional 

 ones, which, we think, will tend to enlarge tlie sphere of its use- 

 fulness, unci to render its published transactions more practical, 

 and give them a more reliable and authentic character. It has 

 formerly been the custom of the Directors of the Society to ap- 

 point Visiting Committees, who have traveled at gi-eat expense 

 to the Society, on exploring expeditions, the scope of their 

 observations embracing every department of industry through 

 the whole length and breadth of the State, and even into 

 adjoining States. These Committees have reported to the Board, 

 for embodying in the published Transactions, with tiresome 

 minuteness, wliere and how they went, and all they saw. 



It is doubtful whether the benefits derived from such a custom 

 are equal to the necessarily great outlay. It is believed that 

 the objects for which the practice was instituted may be attained 

 in a much more reliable and authentic manner, and with com- 

 parativel}' little expense. There are men of ability and practical 

 experience in each particular branch of industry, in ever}^ part 

 of the State, who would, no doubt, if requested, be willing to act 

 as officers or Committees of the Board, in collecting and report- 

 ing to them, annually, fticts and useful and reliable information 

 in the particular department for which they are qualified and for 

 which they should be appointed. 



We have geologists of high character and standing among us, 

 whose business calls them to a constant investigation of the 

 geological structure and advancing development of our mining 

 regions, and whose opinions have great weight, both ui home 

 and abroad. Let the Board appoint some one of these as the 

 geologist of the Society, and ask of him a practical report of the 

 character of our dirterent mineral sections, and the progress and 

 im])rovemcnt annually nuule in mining. Such reports would be, 

 of course, brief and adapted to the general reader, and being 

 published in the annual transactions of the Society, would reach 

 a class of readers who would never see the elaborate reports of 

 the State Geologist, now in process of publication. And here 

 we think it not impi-oper to remark, that while the General 

 Government is directing its inquiries and investigations to deter- 

 mine in what manner to manage or dispose of the public domain 

 embraced within that portion of our State usually denominated 

 minei-al lands, so as at once to produce the greatest revenue to 

 her treasury, and be of the most benefit to the occupants of 

 the same, perhaps it might be well to inquire what the effect upon 

 the future wealth and iiulustry of the State Avould be wore those 

 lands to be disposed of in such a manner as to invite and induce 

 the permanent occupancy and cultivation in vineyards, of those 

 millions of acres located on the hill and mountain sides, and in 

 the countless valleys, which, from actual experience and by the 



