"Such are some of the more obvious results which agriculture is certain to reap from the adoption of the system of research proposed by your memorialists. And important and valued as are the benefits thus promised, we are entitled to count upon others still more valuable, but which no sagacity can anticipate. An apt illustration of the value of these unforeseen results is afforded by the very system of research that the memorialists pray may be extended to the land. That system had for its object the investigation of the direction of the winds and the set of the currents at sea for the benefit of navigation. Important as are the bearings of the results actually obtained in this regard, they dwindle into a small compass when compared with results and discoveries that have been brought out, and that were neither enumerated among the original objects of research, nor contemplated by anyone.
"Among these may be mentioned the demonstration of the practicability of establishing a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic. No such problem was embraced by Lieutenant Maury in his original plan of research; yet the discoveries made during the course of his investigations upon winds and currents demonstrated its practicability. Thereupon a company has been formed, the capital raised, and contracts made for spanning the Atlantic with a telegraphic cable, the success of which will scarcely admit of a doubt. So doubtless it will be when the proposed system of research shall be extended to the land.
"When it is considered that this proposed research by land is a necessary part of the system now so successfully prosecuted at sea—that the interests of navigation and commerce demand it—that the direct and certain advantages to agriculture would be incalculable—that the field is broad, and reasonably promises other important results that no foresight can particularly define—that the same officer who has
