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she has a climate and soil suited to a more varied agriculture than any other State east of the Rocky Mountains. Within the last thirty years, the great progress and general. diffusion of agricultural chemistry in Great Britain, and also, in the older States of this country, has more than doubled the amount per acre of their agricultural productions, and more than tripled the value of their lands. We were often told this summer that such and such lands in Texas had borne annual crops for twenty years, or more, without any diminution of their yield. The truth is, land can bear annual crops, and the last crop be better than the first. It is so with many of the lands of Europe, and of the older States of this country. This has been accomplished by giving the soil more plant food than has been taken from it by the growing plants.

I believe the most speedy and economical way of protecting the frontier, is to make known its mineral wealth and agricultural capacity; then the tide of emigration westward will he such as to stop the incursions of the Indians.

HISTORY OF THE SURVEY.

In 1849, there was published at Bonn, in Germany, "Texas, with Observations on its Natural History and Geology," accompanied with a topographical and geological map of the country, by Ferdinand Roemer, and in 1852, by the same author, was published a notice of the cretaceous rocks of Texas, with descriptions of new species, illustrated with plates. This last work is almost indispensable to the student of Texas geology. Both of these works are in German.

The report of Capt. R. B. Marry, on the exploration of the Red River, of Louisiana, was published at Washington, in 1853. In this work are notices of the coal. fields of Fort Belknap, the gypsum on the upper Red River; also, specimens of copper are reported to have been found in that region.

The "Geology of North America," by Prof. Jules Marcou, was published in 1858. In this work a chapter is given to the geology of the country between Preston, on the Red River, and El Paso, on the Rio Grande. Here again the coal field of Fort Belknap is mentioned, also the gypsum and salt of north-western Texas, but no allusion to the copper is made.