20 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
work desirable in the state. Digging up this buried and long forgotten address 
I have been interested to note in how many respects this forecast has been 
met and the projects there advocated provided for in one way or another in 
the state’s activities. Not that I would claim any special foresight or prophetic- 
vision in the case nor that this address had any special weight in securing 
the results but that it shows in some degree perhaps the sort of hopes and 
aspirations for which the members of the Academy stood in those early days. 
For example, a geological survey was strongly urged and the organization 
which soon after followed and the splendid service of this survey to the state 
have amply justified the plea. A readjustment of the Weather Service was sug- 
gested and the successful combination of the state and government service, 
which was accomplished a few years later, and which has proved one of the 
most effective in the country is our proof that the hope was not a vain one 
nor its accomplishment impracticable. The plea for a state museum for the 
preservation of our native fauna and flora has been met in part at least by the 
splendid start made in the .collections gathered in the historical museum so 
ably organized by the lamented Charles Aldrich and many phases of biological 
investigations have been provided for in the Experiment Station. 
The academy volumes which have been published by the state for a number 
of years have become a distinct feature of the state’s activities and are watched 
for eagerly each year and the record of achievement which they show embraces 
so many important facts concerning the natural history, geology, and other 
scientific problems that the scientific literature of the state would now seem 
meager without them. Accomplishment justly greater than one dreams and 
the prosperous condition of the society shown in reports today is certainly 
most gratifying. 
One thing then urged and desired by many of the members seems not yet 
adequately provided for, at least in fact, and that is a biological survey. This 
was included in the plan for a geological survey and though it is specified in the 
act creating the survey the actual attention to this phase of work by the 
survey has been, as all must realize, a very minor matter. No more, I grant, 
than has been the case in most states where similar conditions exist; no more 
perhaps than seems necessary from the important problems pressing for solu- 
tion along geological lines. I submit, however, that it is hardly the proper 
thing to get a survey established with the support of two bodies of workers and 
then devote all the resources to one line of work, and this condition prevails 
in far too many states where the so-called geological and natural history sur- 
veys are doing little or no biological work and often that little as a purely 
gratuitious service from devoted workers. 
Speaking now as an outsider and viewing the matter from a distance, it 
appears to me that here is one enterprise that this academy might now make 
one of its pet projects. If a thorough and systematic biological survey cannot 
be pushed forward under the present organization so as to secure accurate 
knowledge as to the biological resources of the state, then let the biological 
workers get together to secure provision for the work under some other form 
of organization. 
But I should remember that I have not been invited here to give advice 
and I am too well aware of the energy with which the Iowa people can 
advance the projects in which they believe to feel that advice is needed. 
