ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1873. 41 



termined. A French savan has endeavored to demonstrate that the 

 medicinal value of mineral waters is mainly due to their electrical 

 condition; and the subject is well worthy of investigation by those 

 most interested in it; and those who have the opportunity. 



There are, in this state, many other springs and wells, not included 

 in the table above, that have been brought to the notice of the public 

 for their medicinal virtues; among them the following, all at Wauke- 

 sha: Hygiene, Mount Horeb, Bars tows, White Eock, and Fountain 

 Springs. 



Progress has been made towards the compilation of a list of all the 

 more important springs, including those noted as petrifying (lime), 

 chalybeate, sulphur springs, etc., and also such as are of sufficient 

 capacity to supply ponds for the artificial rearing of fish. 



The investigation of mineral waters cannot be said to be complete 

 without a determination of the gaseous matters they contain, for these 

 may materially modify the medicinal or other effects of the solid in- 

 gredients. This can only be done at the spring, with water taken at 

 the moment it reaches the open air. 



RELATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY TO AGRICULTURE. The law 

 providing for a geological survey of the state of Wisconsin, includes 

 also, and very properly, provision for some work for the special inter- 

 est of agriculture; it being now generally known and admitted that 

 these two subjects are so intimately related, that whatever is done to 

 increase our knowledge of the local and special geology of any dis- 

 trict tends, at the same time, to promote the interest of the farmer 

 cultivating land in the same district. The underlying rocks are exam- 

 ined as to their chemical composition, and surface arrangement or 

 geographical extent; they are the sources from whence is derived the 

 very soil into which the farmer annually intrusts his seed. Their dip, 

 order of succession, depth beneath the surface, their porous or imper- 

 vious nature; these are the data for deciding about artesian or other 

 wells, often the only resource for a permanent supply of water for 

 farm purposes; and as the forests become reduced in extent, the 

 necessity for such wells will be gradually increased. The drift phe- 

 nomena, gleaned from an extended and careful study of the loose ma- 

 terials covering and concealing the more solid rocks, left here by the 

 glaciers of the ice period, the study of which is so interesting to the 

 practical and speculative geologist, have been the means of diffus- 

 ing and spreading the soil over the rocky surface, commingling and 

 mixing the various clays, sands, and pebbles, derived from the disinte- 

 gration of the rocks, in such manner as to render them the best suited 



