Box 15, Folder 6: Geological Survey 1873

STATE CONVENTION—GEOLOGY. 209

and after a crop had been taken from it, to detect the substances that had been abstracted, and thus indicate what should be artifically supplied to stimulate the growth of the next crop; but such is the minuteness of the quantity of plant food, compared with the mass of the soil that chemical science has not yet, except to a limited extent, been able to accomplish this task. Consequently no general effort will be made to analyze the soils of the state; but if any are found that from any special peculiarity, or other reason, seem to require it, such analysis will be made.

Geology is now very properly included among the studies to be pursued in agricultural colleges with a view to its special advantage in the proper cultivation of the soil—a cultivation which shall, without the least dimunition of its annual product, perpetually maintain its fertility. Every farmer should know whether his land is underlaid by rocks whose disintegration is beneficial or otherwise; whether these rocks are of the granite kinds, or whether they consist of sandstone, limestone, or shales. He should also be able to determine the nature of the pebbles, large and small, abounding in his fields, the gradual decay of which from year to year, by reason of exposure to weather changes, frost, rain, sunlight and alternate exposure to heat and cold,—will add useful, or useless, or even deleterious qualities to the soil.

Limestone pebbles especially, by their gradual disintegration, are of the greatest value, by restoring fertilizing substances to the soil that would otherwise soon be exhausted by continual cropping. If these pebbles are of such quality as to be thus beneficial, the land possesses additional value; if otherwise, a larger annual expense for fertilizers will be required. The system of farm management suited to the one case would require modification for the other. Hence it is sufficiently apparent that some knowledge of geology is quite essential to the intelligent farmer, and that it is wise to include it in a course of studies to be pursued in our agricultural colleges.

The several reports to be made to the Governor annually, in January, though chiefly intended to make known the progress and results of each year's work, will be found to contain much that is of interest and value to the farmer. The publication and general 14

210 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

distribution of reports of geological surveys, always prove beneficial by calling public attention in an official and reliable manner, to the resources and advantages of the district surveyed, for the agricultural, manafacturing and other interests.

The next paper was by Hon. C. K. Dean, upon "The best means to secure the legitimate ends of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society."

The ideas advanced were, that the society had too broad a field to make their labors effectual; that it should be confined to more definite and practical points. That the annual fairs should be held at the state capital, and that grounds and buildings be provided by the city of Madison. He repudiated horse racing at fairs to the exclusion of more legitimate and profitable purposes, and to the schemes of chance and other games of immoral tendencies that were annually admitted to their grounds. Said that the state had an agricultural department connected with the University of Wisconsin, an experimental farm, and that these interests should be turned over to the State Agricultural Society, that they might be quickened into new life and made of value to the great producing classes, that the society should issue a weekly or monthly paper, to be edited by the best minds in the country, men of education and high attainments in the science and practice of agriculture, and be circulated throughout the state. He pointed out some of the advantages which he thought would be realized to the industrial interests if this was done.

Ex-President Hinkley said that this paper evidently had been written by a gentleman who knew but little of the work performed by this society, and less of practical value relative to the work to be done, to secure good and profitable results to the people. Some of the suggestions made were well enough if they could be reduced to practice, but you cannot force each farmer in the state to subscribe for a weekly or monthly agricultural paper, if such an one should be published by the society. This was a private enterprise, and could be conducted far better by those who made it a special work than by a state society.

[1873] 89

On the Relation of the Wisconsin Geological Survey, Agriculture. By I A. Lapham, Chief Geologist

The law providing for a Geological survey of the state of Wisconsin, includes also, very properly, provision for some work for the special interest of agriculture, it being now generally known & admitted that these two subjects are so intimately related that whatever is done to increase our knowledge of the local and special geology of any district, tends at the same time to promote the interest of the farmer cultivating land in the same district. The underlying rocks are examined as to their chemical composition and surface arrangement or geographical extent; they are the sources from whence is dirived the very soil into which the farmer annually intrusts his seed. Their dip, order of succession, depth beneath the surface their porous or impervious nature are investigated; these are the data for deciding about Artesian or other wells, often the only resource for a permanent supply of water for favor pruposes; and as the forests become reduced in extent the necessity for such wells will be gradually increased The Drift phenomena,

gleaned from a study of the loose materials, covering and concealing the more solid rocks, left here by the glaciers of the Ice Period, the study of which is so interesting to the practical & speculative geologist; they have been the means of diffusing and spreading the soil over the rocky surface, commingling and mixing the various clays, sands, & pebbles derived from the disintegration of the rocks, in such manner as to render them the best suited for the growth of vegetation. The mineral and other nature resources are discovered and made known:- they are the material for various manufacturies & their development creates a home market — the best of all markets — for farm products, thus deciding the great question now so much agitated, relating to cheap transportation, by avoiding the necessity of any transportation of their products.

The barometrical measurements of the heights and depressions, required of the survey, will show in many cases the sources of water supply upon which we are dependent for this life giving element. these are taken as data in the topographical survey which is to show the general contour

of the ground, the extent, elevation, and slope, of drainage basins or river valleys; the amount and value of water power afforded by these rivers; the proportion of timbered, open, and prairie land; the uplands, the swamps, & marshes; all such detailed information is of importance to various interests, and especially to the agriculturist The geodetic survey which, it is hoped, may, through the instrumentality of the geological survey, be extended into Wisconsin by the general government, will also aid in the development of the topographical features of the state and will show with greater accuracy the exact position of the principal lines of the government land surveys, from which are derived and established the boundaries of farmlands, thus often preventing litigation, and neighborhood quarrels.

It is made the further duty of the survey to search for and properly examine all mineral fertilizers that may exist in the state; to analyse the clays, peats, marls, and other natural products, (useful, either in maintaining the richness of the soil, or) of restoring it