124 FOREST CULTUEE AND 



for comparison the barks, exudations, grains, drugs, 

 as raw material ? Who would not desire to have 

 ready access to a series of oils, whether pressed or 

 distilled, whether from indigenous or imported plants ? 

 Who would not have it in his power to compare the 

 starches, dyes, casts of our luscious fruits, or the 

 paper -material, tars, acids, coals of various kinds, 

 fibers, alkaloids, and other medicinal preparations 

 from various plants ? 



Why not place here a series of all the weapons and 

 implements, traced accurately to their specific origin ? 

 From such even in many instances we have learned, 

 through keen observations of the first nomadic occu- 

 pants of the soil, the use of many kinds of wood. All 

 these objects, crude or prepared in the multitudinous 

 way of their adaptations, ought to be accompanied, 

 wherever necessary, by full explanatory designations, 

 microscopic sections, and other means of elucidation ; 

 while the periodic issue of descriptive indices, detail- 

 ing still more copiously the derivation, uses, prepa- 

 ration, and monetary value of such objects, will enable 

 us to serve the full intentions for which this museum 

 section has been formed. 



Lectures, however valuable, demonstrations, how- 

 ever instructive, cannot al(Jtie form the path of exten- 

 sive industrial education ; most minds, indeed, prefer 

 to dwell tacitly on the objects of their choice, and 

 muse quietly about the adaptability of any of them 

 for operations or improvements in which they may 

 be specially interested. 



How many inventions have received their first 

 impulse from an institution such as we wish to form 1 

 Investigators, eminent in their profession, will doubtr 



