500 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol, XXXVI. No. 929 



later geologic periods in New York state 

 were swept away by erosion or buried be- 

 neath the debris of the Ice Age. Only 

 from the swamps and peat bogs formed 

 since the retreat of the ice have been dis- 

 interred the skeletons of mastodons" and 

 other extinct forms. 



Science, like charity, begins at home. 

 Our Education Department could not do a 

 wiser thing than to popularize the tech- 

 nical geology of the state in a school book 

 and put such a volume into the hands of 

 every scholar; it would exert a vast influ- 

 ence. 



The animal and plant life of the state 

 formed the second great branch of the Sur- 

 vey. As a result New York state has taken 

 a leading part in the encouragement and 

 development of the study of birds in this 

 •country, from 1844, when the state issued 

 a quarto volume of 380 pages and 141 

 colored plates by James E. De Kay, "On 

 the Birds of New York," to 1910, when it 

 published the first of two superb quartos 

 by Baton with colored plates by Puertes; 

 and here again the Survey has been more 

 or less directly the means of bringing out 

 the latent ability of sons of the state. 

 Among the ornithologists, all natives of 

 New York, who have been developed during 

 this period, are Giraud, Mearns, whose 

 researches have extended all over the union 

 and to Africa, Merriam, head of the U. S. 

 Biological Survey, and our leading field 

 naturalists, Bieknell, Ralph, Bagg and 

 many others.^" 



The Survey also produced in 1842 De 

 Kay's four volumes devoted to the mam- 



° Mastodons and mammoth remains are found 

 in swamps and beaches of the same age, though 

 the occurrence of the latter is comparatively rare; 

 they are contemporaneous, but it is probable that 

 the mastodons survived the mammoths within our 

 area. (J. M. C.) 



'»C. Hart Merriam, New York City, 1855; 

 Edgar A. Mearns, Highlands Falls, 1856; B. H. 

 Eaton, Springville, 1866; E. P. BickneU, Wood- 

 mere, L. I. 



mals, reptiles, and amphibians, also the 

 extinct mammals of the state as they were 

 known in 1842. Later contributions to the 

 mammalian life independent of the survey 

 were Merriam 's "Mammals of the Adiron- 

 dacks," 1882 and 1884, Miller's "Prelimi- 

 nary List of the Mammals of New York" 

 in 1889, and Mearns 's "Mammals of the 

 Hudson Highlands ' ' and ' ' Mammals of the 

 Catskill Mountains." 



The practical results growing out of the 

 State Survey are no less significant than 

 the theoretical, affording the strongest 

 proofs that discovering and spreading 

 knowledge of nature is the best investment 

 a state can make, because all wealth and all 

 health flow from such knowledge. When 

 state funds are used for the forces which 

 make for production the payment of 

 interest is retarded, perhaps beyond the 

 lifetime of the individual who makes the 

 discovery and when returns do come the 

 discoverer is often forgotten; only in rare 

 instances does he benefit from them. The 

 chief applications of the results of research 

 have been to agriculture and mining; in 

 fact, the science of agriculture was one of 

 the original motives in the organization of 

 the Survey, and the four volumes which 

 Ebenezer Emmons devoted to the agricul- 

 ture of New York and to its fruit culture 

 between 1846 and 1854 led to the organiza- 

 tion of the State Agricultural Society and 

 finally to the State Agricultural Depart- 

 ment. 



The increase in the value of the mineral 

 product^^ of the state since the organization 



" Mineral productions of the state — 



1837 1911 



Iron ores from within 



the state 1,000,000 3,184,054 



Clay materials 150,000 9,734,744 



Building stones 500,000 5,520,800 



Salt 625,000 2,191,485 



Gypsum 15,000 1,092,598 



Cement 150,000 3,065,334 



Materials not produced 



in 1837 6,784,093 



