annual Report— Geological survey. 
99 
upon the animal and vegetable productions of the state, with ref¬ 
erence to its agricultural interests.” 
The sum of nineteen thousand dollars is annually appropriated 
to carry out its provisions, the survey to commence by the 1st of 
June, 1873, and be completed in four years. The result of this , 
wise enactment can but be of great benefit to the agricultural and 
mining interests of the state. From the preliminary surveys re¬ 
cently made by Prof. Murrish, it is demonstrated that vast deposits 
of iron and other valuable minerals exist in several of the counties 
of the state, which heretofore have been supposed to contain little or 
no mineral lands. The new life which has been infused into those 
having iron interests, by the steadily advancing price, has shown 
to our people and their representatives the importance of develop¬ 
ing the iron interest of this state. These iron mountains are, I 
doubt not, mines of wealth, which only wait the aid of capital to 
develop, by the erection of furnaces and the requisite manufacto¬ 
ries, to make portions of our state, now almost a wilderness, busy 
with the hum of industry, and cause an influx of population to 
consume the surplus products of the soil within our own borders. 
These iron deposits may be some distance from coal, none having 
\ 
been discovered in the state, and yet there is no difficulty in re¬ 
ducing it with charcoal, the material for the manufacture of which 
exists in abundance in close proximity to these mountain mines, 
such as maple, beech, oak and pine, each making a good coal. It 
may cost a trifle more to reduce the iron with charcoal than with 
the common coal, if the latter could be obtained near by, and still 
it is claimed that the former makes a superior article of iron, be¬ 
ing tougher and stronger. 
The lead, zinc and other ores of the state which exist in abun¬ 
dance, will be brought also to the attention of capitalists by this 
survey, and a new and valuable impetus given to these great 
branches of the vast minerahresources of the state. Altogether, 
the great mineral interest of the state cannot be over estimated, and 
the legislature has acted wisely and well, in taking even at this 
late day, the preliminary steps to attract the attention, not only of 
our own people, but of the entire world, to the mineral treasures 
within our state ; treasures which, when put in form to be used 
