be enabled to do much toward preventing the ravages of many of the destroying insects which now infest our grain and fruit trees.* In the Botanical department, the first volume is nearly printed; the whole work making two volumes, accompanied by 150 plates, giving figures of the most important and characteristic plants of the State. These volumes may be regarded as of intrinsic importance to every citizen, and particularly to the farmer, the gardener, and the horticulturist. The nature, habits, and practical uses of plants, their adaptations to culture, the transplanting and cultivation of shrubs and forest trees, with the soil and other circumstances necessary to their success, we may expect will be fully treated. In the department of Mineralogy, a volume has already appeared, embracing an account of those substances of economical importance and analysis of our ores, manufacture of the same, &c., with a second part embracing descriptions of all the minerals known in the State. This volume may be regarded as of the first importance both to the amateur in the science, and to the practical man. The work is illustrated by upwards of 500 figures of crystalline forms of the various minerals found within the State. Of the Geological reports I propose to speak more at length. In this department four volumes have been published, being the reports of the several geologists upon the districts committed to their charge. Accompanying these volumes is a geological map of the State, on which the limits and extent of the several formations are laid down. The survey has resulted in conclusively showing the relative position of all the rocky strata of the State, from the lowest known to the coal measures. The lowest rock of this formation occupies some small patches in the south-western part of the State, but none of the coal bearing strata approach nearer than within six miles of the State line. From these investigations we are able to trace the extent of all the important rocks of the State, and the range of those containing valuable substan The boundaries of each formation are definitely settled, and no one with a knowledge of these subjects will look beyond the limits of certain formations for substances which it is well ascertained are confined to them. The negative knowledge thus acquired cannot but be of the highest importance. So long as coal and the precious metals were supposed to be hidden beneath the surface, requiring only skill and knowledge to * See the very able paper upon this subject in the present volume, by Willis Gaylord. bring them forth, so long were the minds of the community harrassed and perplexed with reports of coal mines, silver mines, and numerous similar discoveries. Multitudes of persons are ready upon such reports to commence borings and excavations, with a belief that such things may exist as well in one place as in another. A little iron pyrites, or a thin seam of coal, extending perhaps a few inches, excite expectation of discovering mines of gold and coal, compared with which the gains of agriculture or mechanical labor are insignificant; and all wholesome and regular pursuits are for the time abandoned, in the hope of great and sudden wealth. All are familiar with the mining enterprises, now less frequent, in search of coal along the valley of the Hudson river; and in which there have been expended more than half a million of dollars within the last fifty years.*. Similar enterprises. and with like success, have been carried on throughout the western part of the State; and numerous examples might be cited where the inhabitants at fifty miles distance had full confidence in the pretended discoveries of mines of coal, and other substances equally foreign to our strata.t In such a state of things, with the public mind excited and individuals ready upon the slightest occasion to plunge into these mining speculations, not only to the extent of their means, but often far beyond them is it little to set at rest this vain expectation, and the unfounded opinions of the community upon subjects of such vital importance to their welfare? Is it useless that every man may know what is around him and beneath him, not only of mineral wealth, but of soil and rocks, of plants and animals?-that the thousand beautiful dependencies of the eternal chain of Nature be known to him, and the links that bind all parts in one harmonious whole ? It is true that in the progress of the New-York Geological Survey, no mines of gold or silver have been discovered; but this may be regarded as a blessing rather than an evil. One such discovery would have caused multitudes of our inhabitants to neglect their legitimate pursuits for the chance of a similar one. We have only to look at the * Mr. Murchison in his treatise on the Silurian rocks of the southwest of England and Wales, remarks that more wealth has been uselessly expended in searching for coal in that part of the country, than all the geological investigations in the whole world have cost! The rocks in that region are of the same character, hold the same position, and contain the same fossils as those of New-York. + Scarcely a year has elapsed since the public were gravely informed of the discovery of a coal mine somewhere in Oneida county. gold regions of Virginia, Carolina and Georgia for the proof of this position here we perceive agriculture and other employments abandoned, and the country presenting waste and barren fields, while hundreds barely gain a miserable subsistence in gathering grains of gold or searching for mines-a futile pursuit of the ever-fleeting phantom of fortune. Thus with all the advantages which such accessions may be supposed to give, the inhabitants of the mountainous region of NewEngland and New-York, depending alone upon the productions of the earth and mechanical skill, enjoy far more of the comforts and luxuries of life, than those of more favored climates who, engaging in mining pursuits, are slaves to the all-absorbing and all-blighting influence of a thirst for gold. It is true that the wide-spread and fertile regions of Central and Western New-York, require none of these adventitious aids: the farmer is usually content with his well-filled barns, his rich fields and meadows. It is along the southern and eastern portions of the State, as we approach the more hilly regions, where the soil becomes less fertile, and requires a greater amount of labor, that we find men ever ready to believe in the idle visions of the mine-hunter. They reason that, as these hills are of a hard soil and difficult culture, nature must have provided some compensation; and mines of coal and the precious metals are, for no other reason, supposed to exist beneath the surface. It became the duty of the Geologists therefore to investigate this subject; to show to the inhabitant of each portion of the State the kind of rock around him, and the nature of its products, so that every one may see for himself the extent and value of his domain; and while they bid the dweller on these barren hills forever to dismiss the hope of coal or of the metals, they still may point him to some neglected corner of his farm, considered more worthless even than the hill-sides, where a muck swamp or a marl bed is for him a treasure more precious than a mine of gold. There is one thing to be constantly borne in mind, viz that Order is the first law of Nature; that the materials forming the solid crust of our globe are arranged in a definite sequence; and that this arrangement is always and everywhere the same. Such valuable substances therefore as we seek, are not the result of accident or chance, but the product of fixed and unerring laws, which govern in all places and all periods of the earth's history. Coal is not to be sought indiscriminately in all rocky strata, neither There indeed in all those where we find indications of its existence. The position and extent of our salt formation, being next in importance to coal, have been satisfactorily shown; and the limits within which brine springs may be found are now well ascertained. The propriety of deep borings into the solid rock has been tested during the progress of this survey, and it has been ascertained that the strongest brines are from the deepest alluvial sources, but penetrating the solid rock gives no increase of strength. The limits of our limestone formations, of the hydraulic cement, and other important substances, have been shown; and some of these which were only known at a few points, are found to range throughout the State. Beds of marl, almost without number, have been noticed, and their importance, in connexion with the muck swamps, has been fully dwelt upon in the Annual Reports. Numerous localities of marble have been discovered, some of which are of the most beautiful kinds.. The immense extent of the deposits of magnetic iron ore, near the sources of the Hudson river, shows that part of the State to be, without a parallel, the richest in this mineral of any portion of the world. Similar ores, in other parts of the State, are likewise abundant, as have been shown; and numerous veins of lead ore have been discovered, though none of them at present realize the expectations of those who have engaged in this branch of mining. Finally, however, without specifying further, we may observe that the geological map, with the description of the rocks, brings before one, at a glance, all the available resources of the State. The colors indicate only the geological divisions, and present the proportionate area of surface occupied by each rock in the State. It points the miner, the artizan, or the farmer, to those parts where each will find what he is seeking. Not only is it useful in enabling those already in fixed positions to ascertain the materials around them, but in indicating to enterprising individuals or companies, the position of important substances, such as limestone for building purposes and for lime, hydraulic |