Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-02-12
Correspondence Cincinnati Enquirer
Geological Survey of Ohio.
COLUMBUS, O., February 2, 1869.


Governor Hayes having in his last
annual message recommended a geo.
! logical survey of the State, the matter
/ has been referred in the House, to q
| Special Committee, consisting OF Messrs.
! Lee, Lewton, Rutter, Kemp and CoIlen.
The chairman Of the committee has
entered into an extensive correspond
ence with practical scientific men of the
State, and Of other States, with the
view of ascertaining the cost of a thor
ough survey, the best means of con-
Quoting it, and the beneficial results to
be expected from it. The result is the
collection of a large number of letters
and documents relating to the subject,
presenting in strong colors the great
necessity for q survey, and its value to
the material interest Of the State. The
committee's Investigations are now be-
ing embodied in a bill and report, which
will shortly be presented in the House,
The bill provides for a geological, ag-
ricultural and meteorological survey Of
the entire State, and requires the work
to be commenced not later than the
first of June next, and completed with
in three years from that time.
It will be remembered that q similar
survey was commenced in the year 1886,
but was arrested the following year by
the refusal of the General Assembly to
appropriate the funds necessary for car
rying it forward. This refusal seems
to have grown out of causes entirely
distinct from any want of confidence
in the value of the survey. The sud
den interruption of the work, of course,
left it in an Imperfect state, eleven cOun-
ties only having been surveyed with
any degree of thorOughness. Never
theIess the results were of great impor-
tance, property in some. sections ad-
vancing in value to the extent of hum
dreds of thousands of dollars, owing to
the discovery of valuable mineral de-
posts. The knowledge then obtained
may, 1t is believed, be now made
doubly valuable in facilitating a new
survey, and in diminishing both the
time and expense necessary for con-
Quoting it.
There can be no doubt that good ex-
pIoration of the economic geology of
the State, devoted to practical objects,
and not eHcunlbered too much with
scientific distractions, must be of im-
mense service to the material interests
of the State. The statistics of crops in
Ohio for the past two decades show a
startling decline in the productiveness
of the soil which it behooYes us to use
all the appliances of science to arrest.
The difficulty can only be reached
through a careful analysis of our soils,
q knowledge Of the adaptations of the
underlying strata for drainage, and the
discovery and application of mineral
manures. Other States, younger than
Ohio and equally as fertile, have expe-
rienced the same decline in agricultural
productiveness, but have exhibited a
wiser forecast in providing for it, and
the splendid volumes comprising the
surveys of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin,
bIichigan, Kentucky, Pennsylvania,
New York and other States that might
be named, show that we are sadly be-
hind in this respect.
The mineral resources of the State
are yet, in a large number of counties
comparatively unexplored, and other
States with less mining advantages, are
attracting capital away from US through
better knowledge ofthe mineral wealth.
Besides we are annually paying other
States large amounts for mineral pro-
ducts which we have in abundance at
home but fail to make available for
for want of proper information of their
location end value. U -
It Is time these things should be no
longer said of the great State of Ohio,
and we shall justly deserve the re-
proach of being behind our sister States
both in enterprise and material wealth
if we much longer leave unemployed
the means which experience and OBJ
servation have alike shown to be neces-.
sary for the proper development of our
resources. The General Assembly can
scarcely do a more glorious thing for
the State than to provide for a thorough
geological survey. A.Ls