Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-02-19

er thaD the whole cost OF the survey
| Its extent was too limited to be of
very great benefit to the people at
large. but had it been continued every
intelligent landholder would have been
able to place a Just estimate on the
value Of his land. and its agricultural
or mineral capabilities.
/ ct the survey was necessarily very
meager But few counties were
visited. aud these we're imperfectly
| studied. No geological map of the
State was made aad only two or three
maps of geological sections. In ecan-
omic geology. little was done, except
/ to point out, over limited areas, the
/ position of portion of the mere i'm
portant minerals.
| 1t should also be considered that the
old survey was taken under many dis
advantages. Sine that time great
progress has been made in all the de-
partments of applied science. Many
questions which must then have been
worked out de aaoUo By the geological
corps, have since been settled by in
| vestigatloBs of a similar nature else
| where besides, the country was then
comparatively new, and the work of
| investigation had TO be commenced
| from the very foundation.
During the thirty years which have
elapsed since the Ohio survey was
suspended, nearly all the other States
| have had surveys more or less com
plete. That Of New York was inau-
gurated By the late Governor Marcy,
/ and is probably the most elaborate in
scientific point Of view. The reports
| fill Eve large volumes, and are consid-
cred the finest contribution to science
made by any State. In Pennsylvania,
owing to various Interruptions and the
great diversity Of her surface, ten
| years were spent IN making a thorough
geological surVey-the final reports of
| which show the State to be possessed
of marvellous mineral resources. These
reports occupy three ponderous vol
umes, illustrated with great variety
of typographical and geological maps
and plates, all executed in the highest
style of art. aud worth a thousand fold
more than they cost. The New Eng
land States have all had careful sur
veys, and in New Hampshire an ad-
ditional one has recently been com
| menced. Nearly all the Western
States have had surveys, more or less
complete, generally accompanied with
full aud elaborate final reports. In
some Of the newer States the work
was partially done at the ex-
| pense of the general government, and
the cost was more than counter bal
anced by the additional value given to
the public lands and the increased
stimulus to purchase. At the pres
ent time, surveys, which are
bringing to light facts Of the very
highest importance In economic geolO-
gyy, are being prosecuted In the States
of Illinois and Iowa. The reports of
these surveys, so ar as completed,
have been published-those of Illinois
comprising three and those of Iowa
two large and splendid volumes. The
young state of California, which came
into the Union many years after the
! preliminary survey of Ohio was sus-
pended, has been carefully surveyed,
: and its vast mineral and agricultural
resources set forth in thorough and
scientific way
Your committee also find upon the
shelves of our State Library the pub
hshed reports of the surveys of Ken
lucky, Massachusetts,, Wisconsin, Yer
mont, New Hampshire, Missouri, New
Jersey, Virginia, Rhode Island, Mich
igan, Connecticut, North Carolina,
Maine, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkan-
sas, Canada, and one volume compri-
sing a general survey of Iowa, Wiscon-
sin and Illinois. Besides these, many
of them very elaborate and beautiful
in design, the incomplete and cheaply
executed Ohio report stands in painful
comparison, in no respect eqUaliBg
any, except, perhaps, those of New
Jersey, Virginia and Rhode Island.
AS the various geological reports
have been extensively used by our
Government agents and railroad men
in negotiating foreign loans, and are
carefully consulted abroad by those
who wish to invest their capital or fix
their homes in America and, further
more, as these reports are considered
the only authentic and thoroughly re-
liable exposition Of the agricultural
and mineral resources of a particular
section, it is easy to see how import
States of the Union, should no longer
delay in giving to the world, adequate
scientific information of the vast ele-
ments of wealth that lie treasured in
her bosom.
There Is, furthermore. a scientific
necessity for this, in the fact that the
elaborate surveys of New York and
Pennsylvania in the east, and Ken
EuGkIg UulGnlBdug 4S4LHOIS au0 UtAGE
Western States make Ohio a needed
keystone in the geological arch, an in
i valuable member, without which the
symmetery and connection of the whole
can never be obtained.
/ Of the practical benefits to be de-
rived from a thorough geological sur
vey, it will suffice to mention few of
4 the more important. These relate
| III, A., Ar-r1 ,Ar-s kr,
which, it may be safely said, must con
stitute the basis of our future, as they
do of our present prosperity. IF the
philosophic Burke could say, So the
soil of England is England herself"
much more can we, with our land 1i-
| Yided up among the whole people, say
that our soil is our State-that the ag-
ricultural and mining interests under
lie all others, and constitute, literally,
the ground work on which our pros
/ peritY rests.
And first, of the advantages to apri-
| culture. An accurate survey would
put it in the power of every man Of
/ common intelligence to determine the
4 true value Of his land, benefit of
/ which no State sincerely jealous of the
interests of its people, should fail to
| confer. Ohio lands are now, to a large
extent, even in the mineral regions,
rated at their mere surface value, while
beneath them may lay mineral treas
ures which, properly developed. would
| increase their valuation hundred fold,
Many of our broken and thin lands.
poorly adapted for agriculture, doubt
/ less have subterrauean wealth, which,
if accredited, would place them among
the most desirable in the state. Others
of the same character may contain be-
meath their surface, or lie near to, beds
\ of mineral mauures, which, if fapplied, |
would greatly improve their fertility. |
The evil which annually results
from the want of this accurate knowl-
edge of the underground resources of |
our lands, is far more than is usually |
imagined. It is not saying too much |
to assert that enough money is every
year wasted by our people in the pros
ecution of schemes which every geolo-
gist would pronounce necessarily