April 25, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



617 



ignorant of the immense amount of valu- 

 able work that has been done by these vol- 

 unteer agencies, work that would be still 

 undone if it had waited for the call of the 

 state. What a happy conjunction of abil- 

 ity, disposition and means was that in Ne- 

 braska which resulted in the "Phytogeog- 

 raphy" of that state! A brilliant effect 

 not repeated elsewhere. Also one recalls 

 the valuable papers dealing with state 

 vegetation in Vermont, New Jersey, Iowa, 

 Kansas, Colorado and Texas, all done in 

 recent years outside the official surveys. 

 Success of this kind usually depends on 

 the ability and activity of one or a few 

 spirits whose mantles do not descend on 

 their followers in oiiice. 



Besides their value to science, these ef- 

 forts of individuals, academies, and other 

 non-governmental organizations to con- 

 tribute to state surveys have the valuable 

 effect of stimulating and promoting inter- 

 est in such matters till such time as the 

 state will establish and conduct surveys at 

 state expense. The establishment of the 

 Biological Survey in Michigan in 1905 was 

 the direct result of the efforts of the Mich- 

 igan Academy of Science put forth for the 

 preceding ten years. 



There are probably few states in the 

 union whose governing bodies have not 

 been appealed to within the last quarter of 

 a century for funds to undertake natural 

 history surveys; and yet, in spite of all 

 this effort, only four states within this 

 period, to the best of the writer's knowl- 

 edge, have responded with any consider- 

 able financial support — the states of Wis- 

 consin, Connecticut, North Dakota and 

 Michigan. The states of New York, Illi- 

 nois and Minnesota began their natural 

 history surveys before this quarter-century, 

 and have continued them with fairly gen- 

 erous support. 



Seeing that so many of the state govern- 



ments have been appealed to for aid, and 

 only seven are lending any considerable 

 support, the conclusion is inevitable that 

 the appeal has not strongly interested the 

 governing body; or, to reduce the matter 

 to terms of practical politics, the appeal 

 has not aroused sufficient backing to move 

 state executives and legislatures. What 

 have been the terms of this ineffective ap- 

 peal? Here let the writer call upon his 

 own experience, while believing that his 

 own experience has been that of many 

 others. 



The appeals for state aid have generally 

 recited three classes of benefits to be en- 

 joyed by the state from state natural his- 

 tory surveys. These three are classed as 

 economic, scientific and educational. Ta- 

 king a leaf from the uniformly successful 

 experience of geological surveys, the nat- 

 ural history promoters have first of all 

 argued for the economic good to the state 

 to come from a natural history survey, in 

 the way of better knowledge of agricultural 

 lands, the promotion of forestry, the in- 

 crease of fish and game, the discovery and 

 combating of plant and animal diseases, 

 etc. Although this argument has been 

 strengthened by reference to the profitable- 

 ness of the fish and game industry of 

 Maine, by depicting the sad state of the 

 cut-over forest lands which the survey 

 might remedy, and by numerous other ci- 

 tations, the legislators seem never to be 

 sure that the argument applies to their 

 own state; or, they are not sure that the 

 benefits will not come without the cost of 

 a survey. 



The trouble with the argument for eco- 

 nomic good seems to be that it is too vague 

 to be convincing. The state geologist in 

 asking for his appropriation proposes to 

 explore a district for iron or copper, or to 

 make a report on water-power or artesian 

 waters. Local or corporate interests force 



