INTRODUCTION. 
BY ERASMUS HAWORTH. 
THIs report on Gypsum and Gypsum Cement Plasters is the 
second special report issued by the University Geological Survey 
of Kansas which has a direct bearing on the mineral resources of 
our state, the former being the special report on coal, constituting 
Volume III of our Survey series. While many interesting and 
profound theoretical questions are touched upon here and there 
throughout the report it has constantly been endeavored to make 
it as intensely practical as possible, believing that there is no 
necessary incompatibility between the strictly theoretic and sci- 
entific and the economic problems connected with the geology 
of any region. Kansas has such unlimited quantities of gyp- 
sum occurring with such a wide geographic range, in such a 
great variety of forms, and under so many different geological 
conditions that it affords unusual opportunities for profound in- 
vestigations along strictly theoretical lines. The field was there- 
fore an enticing one, a field which would have been entered by 
many different individuals had opportunity been afforded. 
Again, the economic importance of these same gypsum de- 
posits is so great that it takes no prophetic mind to see in them 
for the future one of the greatest natural resources within the 
whole domain of our state. HKverything indicates that the de- 
mand for gypsum and the various products manufactured from it 
will steadily increase rather than decrease. It is now generally 
admitted that gypsum cement plaster in its various forms is rap- 
idly replacing almost all other kinds of plaster formerly used as 
constructive materials. Its increased production during the last 
decade is little short of marvelous, portending for the future a 
still greater increase, particularly should the revival of business 
now assured include a great extension of building and other 
constructional activity. 
It is further probable, it would seem, that within the near 
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