382 



NA 7 URE 



[Marc/i 1 8, 1875 



sachusetts alone they lose every year, from insects and 

 parasitic plants, 500,000,000 dollars ; and that in one 

 year alone they lost by the army-worm 250,000 dollars' 

 worth of hay-crops. No wonder he says, " Certainly it 

 will be a good thing to have a body of observers at work 

 systematically, year after year, collecting information, 

 which may be spread before the farmers of the State and 

 others interested." In this connection the words of Mr. 

 A. G. Boyden are worth quoting : — 



" The relation of the animal to the vegetable kingdom 

 is a most intimate one. In the cultivation of orchards, 

 garden vegetables, and things of that sort, upon which 

 we as a people depend a great deal, we have to contend 

 continually with insects ; if we could learn, therefore, the 

 facts about the insects that are found in this State ; if we 

 knew how they were generated, how they grow, and what 

 they feed on, we might do a great deal towards saving a 

 large part of the crops that are now destroyed by them. 

 For instance, the canker-worm comes periodically, and 

 vei-y few people know much about the habits of this 

 irsect. Very little is known about insects by people 

 generally. They do not even know them by name. They 

 do not recognise an insect in the three stages of its life. 

 Every gardener, every orchardist, every person cultivating 

 herbs, trees, or shrubs, needs this inlormation. As has 

 been said this morning, we have not the books to which 

 we can go for help in gaining this information. . . . Mr. 

 Emerson has given us an excellent book on the trees of 

 the State, which is a very great aid, but in respect to the 

 other matters of which 1 have spoken, we have very few 

 such helps as are needed. It would seem, therefore, that 

 a survey of this kind, in which scientific men were 

 employed, who could, as they went over the different 

 localities of the State, collect, incidentally, and without 

 adding very much to the expense, the facts relating to 

 these subjects, would be of great value." 



The body of evidence contained in the Report before 

 us seems to us to show clearly, what indeed is almost self- 

 evident, that one of the first duties of a nation, from 

 the lowest point of view of self-interest, is to obtain a 

 complete scientific knowledge of its home and all that it 

 contains ; only thus can it be able to make the most of 

 its natural resources. 



While the great practical advantages of the survey 

 were insisted upon, the gains to science and to education 

 which would accrue from it were also brought prominently 

 forward. Some important problems in science, it was 

 shown, might be solved by a thorough geological and 

 biological survey of Massachusetts ; one of the most im- 

 portant of these is in connection with Cape Cod. 



" Here, in Massachusetts," Prof. Shaler says, " you 

 have certain peculiar questions connected with the distri- 

 bution of animal life to the north and south of Cape Cod, 

 which offers one of the most remarkable illustrations of 

 the variations in the distribution of animal life that is 

 afforded anywhere in the world. The constant changes 

 as years go by, the influence of temperature on the distri- 

 bution ot animals, these are questions which can be inves- 

 tigated there. There is no question that Cape Cod is one 

 of the great problems of Massachusetts, and it is a pro- 

 blem on which a large number of investigations should be 

 hung. Prof. Peirce, who has carefully traced and grouped 

 the facts connected with that part ot the coast, will agree 

 with me in saying that Cape Cod is the key-point ; that 

 geologically it is the most important point in Massa- 

 chusetts, with regard to the agencies that have been at 

 work in the creation of the soil, especially with reference 

 to the glacial period, S;c." 



With regard to education, it was shown tliat in several 



ways this exhaustive survey would be of great value. It 

 was proposed by some that the scientific students in the 

 several colleges might with advantage to themselves be 

 occasionally employed on the work, while they might be 

 of some assistance to the survey-parties; this plan, if 

 judiciously carried out, might indeed be of great service 

 both to the students and to the work of the survey. 

 Prof Shaler pointed out that what he thinks the prin- 

 cipal defect of the British Survey does not concern 

 its work, but its effect upon British science. " It has 

 not taken pains," he said — and we cannot take upon 

 ourselves to judge of the justice of his statement — 

 " to connect itself enough with the work of education 

 in Great Britain ; and the result is, as is admitted 

 by some of the oldest geologists there, that there are 

 few young geologists coming up in England at this 

 time." This, if true, is certainly a great lesson for 

 Massachusetts, as Prof. Shaler says ; we hope, however, 

 he has overstated the case, or at least that the supply of 

 geologists in this country is not dependent on the Geolo- 

 gical Survey. It was shown that in other ways a com- 

 plete survey in all departments would be of the highest 

 advantage in carrying on the practical education of the 

 young in schools of all classes ; and that from want of the 

 results of such a survey, education was seriously ham- 

 pered. 



It will thus be seen that if in the course of years — for 

 it is proposed to do the work leisurely and allow eminent 

 scientific men to share in it as they can find opportunity 

 — the people of Massachusetts do not have one of the 

 most accurate and most complete surveys in the world, it 

 will simply be because they are blind to their own real 

 interests, which have so forcibly been brought before 

 them by some of the most eminent of their scientific men, 

 in whom the State is so rich. But as " the commonwealth 

 of Massachusetts has not been wont long to weigh great 

 advantages against small expenditures, so we may safely 

 anticipate," with Prof. Shaler, " her speedy action." 



Need we point any moral for ourselves from the liberal 

 and comprehensive ideas which the comparatively small 

 (its extent, 7,800 miles, is only about that of Wales) 

 and young State of Massachusetts has of what a survey of 

 her territory includes ? We have our topographical and 

 our geological surveys, both doing excellent work, and 

 both already productive of large practical and scientific 

 results. But if we want to make the most of our small 

 and over-crowded country ; if we want, as we certainly 

 should if we have our own welfare at heart, to have a 

 complete knowledge of our country's resources, why 

 should we stop short at topography and geology ? Forty 

 years ago Massachusetts showed itself to be far wiser than 

 Britain is even now. Even then the little Transatlantic 

 State saw it to be to its best advantage to know all about 

 its soil and its natural products ; we do not know that 

 the question has ever been mooted in this country, A 

 knowledge of what is being done on the other side of 

 the water may give us a perception of our true interests 

 and our duty to ourselves and the world. To apply the 

 words of Prof. Shaler : " Look at it as we may, measuring 

 its immediate gains to our mines, our fields, our water- 

 mills, to our cities in their water supply and sewage, to 

 our railways and common roads, to the interests of each 

 owner of an acre that is to be improved j or considering 



