REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
53 
members of this Commission serve without compensation, and the Curator 
receives a regular salary, as stipulated in the act. 
Supplementary legislation (Chapter 195, P. L. 1896) makes it the duty of the 
Museum Commission “to prepare plans for such alterations as are necessary 
to provide suitable rooms in the State House,” provided said plans shall be 
approved by the State House Commission and the work be done under its 
supervision. 
The act further provides that no work shall be done or contract entered into 
without a specific appropriation for that purpose. As no appropriation has been 
made, the Museum is limited to the corridors and two small attic rooms in the 
old central portion of the State House. The collections of the Geological Survey 
are on the third floor of the rear building or extension, in a room assigned to 
the Survey by the State House Commission in 1892. The space allotted to the 
Museum is insufficient and unsuitable for the exhibition of the several collections. 
Although the Geological Survey room and the rooms assigned to the Educational 
and Agricultural exhibits are now full, many boxes of minerals, fossils and educa¬ 
tional and agricultural exhibits are stored in the basement of the State House. 
The Museum Commission has appointed S. R. Morse, of Atlantic City, Curator 
of the Museum. 
OBJECTS OF TIIE MUSEUM. 
State Museums have been established and maintained with successful results, 
and proved of value in all other leading States of our country. They supplement 
and illustrate the Geological and Natural History Surveys and the reports of 
tlieir Boards of Agriculture and Departments of Education. They are neither 
simply collections of curiosities nor repositories of materials found in the State, 
but are designed to be in touch with its life, to illustrate its natural re¬ 
sources and capabilities, and to constitute an important part of its educational 
auxiliaries. 
In New Jersey the Geological Survey is thus illustrated by collections of 
minerals, ores, rocks and other natural products of economic importance, and 
by models, maps and publications descriptive of the occurrence of these materials. 
It is desirable that these collections be so enlarged as to be truly representative 
of the physical geography and the geology of our State, and to show -what has 
been done in the development of its natural resources. They would be most 
helpful to every student seeking information in regard to the geological structure, 
the geographical extent and location of the various rocks, the paleontological 
■contents of these formations and their life history. 
The State Museum should include collections which would show the staple 
products of the soil, of the fruit orchards, of the farm, of the dairy, and other 
branches of agricultural industry. The implements of husbandry should make 
one section of the Agricultural Department of a Museum, would show the im¬ 
provement in mechanical help to the farmer and be suggestive of still further 
improvements. Specimens of the wood and of the timber trees growing naturally 
in the State, together with leaves and fruit to show their botanical relations, 
should be a part of such a collection, and would be interesting alike to the 
lumberman and the botanist. 
Mounted specimens of the common and more valuable kinds of domestic animals, 
and of the choicest breeds of fowls, would add to the agricultural part of the 
Museum and make a most attractive feature. A collection of the insects that 
prey upon our shrubbery, fruit trees and agricultural products, together with 
reliable directions as to the most effective means of protection against them, or 
