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the forests, which are to produce the desired alterations of agricultural conditions, must devolve upon the people themselves to whom the benefits of such action will principally accrue.

CONCLUSION.

From the foregoing it will be clearly seen that the work thus far has been in the main preliminary and preparatory, and necessarily so, as the time which has expired since the organization has been too short to do more than get ready for the real work to be done, and to ascertain in what direction it is most needed. Yet it is hoped enough has been accomplished to show at least what there is yet to do, and to convince the most skeptical of its practical utility and value to the people as individuals and to the state as an entity.

The scope of the work is wide enough and the results to flow from it important and valuable enough to call for the active employment of all the skill and talent the state can command. The expenditure in this direction within the next two years of one hundred thousand dollars, together with the necessary change in our mining laws already indicated, would, I am satisfied, be repaid tenfold by the development and improvement of the country and the consequent augmentation of taxable values; and fiftyfold in the increase of our prosperity, and the consequent amelioration of the condition of our people. It would open up avenues for the investment and employment of surplus capital, multiply industries, and thereby create a demand for labor, giving occupation to those of our people now suffering from enforced idleness; render our agricultural population in a measure independent of the uncertainties of the seasons, by insuring a certain return for their industry and remuneration for their labor, by providing a ready market for their productions; give a stimulus to manufacturing, mining, and agricultural pursuits, which in turn would stimulate trade and commerce, and go far toward making Texas self-supporting, self-contained, and genuinely independent.

Respectfully,

E. T. DUMBLE.