In his 24th and final annual report of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota Winchell summarized the costs of the survey and the importance of the salt spring lands to its support. The text of the relevant section follows.

The cost of the Geological Survey.

The cost of the geological portion of the survey, made out from the reports of the regents and from the records of the state geologist, can be stated approximately as below. It is a somewhat difficult task, in some cases, to disentangle the strictly geological expenses from others as grouped in the treasurer's reports. But by the aid of records kept systematically since the commencement of the survey by the state geologist, every item of expense incurred by him, or for his work, can be identified; and annually the cost has been separated from the general expenses. Too often, however. in the public press and elsewhere, the cost of the whole Survey, including the museum, has been charged against the "geological survey," and it has sometimes been wrongly accused of being too costly. The average annual cost of the geological portion of this enterprise, for the 27 years during which it has been under the charge of the writer, has been $5,420.64. The following summary of theexpenses of the survey is taken from a communication made to the president of the board of regents, Feb. 10, 1897, supplemented by later data to July 31, 1899.

Summary of the expenses of the geological survey.

The credit side in dollars and cents.

When the survey began, in 1872, there was in possession of the State, in a more or less uncertain condition as to location and value, a class of lands known as Salt Spring lands. Of this land grant, which came from the United States when the State was admitted into the Union, the Legislature had been induced, under various specious pretexts of developing the brine alleged to exist at Belle Plaine, to part with two large bodies of land. One was granted by the Legislature of 1870. Another was granted by the Legislature of 1871 conditioned on a favorable report by a competent geologist, to be appointed by the governor. Gov. Austin appointed Prof. A. Winchell, who reported adversely, rendering the act inoperative. Still the project survived, and the Legislature of 1872 was induced to make another grant of six sections of Salt Spring lands for the same purpose to the same company, without conditions. This history plainly indicated that the Salt Spring lands were the prey of delusive enterprises, and would in time be frittered away without rendering the State any return. Indeed the present state geologist had no sooner fairly entered upon his duties than he was solicited :for aid to the Belle Plaine Salt Co. with a view to the designation of other salt lands where said company might still further explore at the expense of the Salt Spring lands. And still further, after these lands had been set aside for the expenses of the Geological and Natural History Survey of the state, the Belle Plaine Salt Co. pursued the Board of Regents. A bill was introduced in the Legislature of 1875 (?) authorizing the Belle Plaine Salt Co. to explore for brine on any of the Salt Spring lands of the state, and ordering the regents, after a certain amount of work had been done, to pay said company by deeding to it some portion of these lands. The bill never became a law. But it still further shows the precarious position of the Salt Spring land grant.

The state geologist in his first report (1872) recommended that these lands be used for the prosecution of the survey on which he was engaged. In making this recommendation he had the concurrence of several public spirited and far-sighted citizens, among whom should be mentioned Hon. J. S. Pillsbury, Hon. A. J. Edgerton, Hon. O. P. Whitcomb, Hon. H. B. Wilson and Mr. W. D. Hurlbut. The lands were so appropriated through the activity of Mr. Pillsbury who was then in the state senate.

This history is detailed here, not to show that these lands should be credited to the survey, but to make it plain that, had not the survey interposed at a critical epoch in their history, the State might have lost them entirely by such enterprises as the Belle Plaine Salt Co.

The Salt Spring lands, originally granted to the State, aggregated 46,080 acres, as reasonably computed from the terms of the grant. Of this the State was unable to avail itself of 11,520 acres, that amount being situated outside the area surveyed by the United States government. This reduced the original available grant to 34, 560 acres. It was further reduced by occupancy by settlers 6,752 acres. About 1,600 acres were also previously covered by the terms of the act granting swamp lands to the State. The remainder, 26,425 acres, was certified to the State. The Bell Plaine Salt. Co. was granted 7,643 acres on complying with the acts of the Legislature. The rest of the certified lands, amounting to 18,771 acres, were turned over to the regents to carry on the Geological and Natural History Survey.

On making an exhaustive examination of the records in the governor's office at St. Paul, for which search the then governor (Austin) submitted the records of the correspondence of the office since the admission of the State into the Union, the state geologist not only ascertained the foregoing facts, but also discovered that there was a large deficit to which the State was still entitled. The report that he made to the regents on the condition of the Salt Spring land grant was printed as a special document by order of the board of regents, at the expense of the board, and was privately circulated to the state officers and to the Legislature, but it never entered into the public documents. It is, however, summarized in one of the reports of the regents to the Legislature.

On conference with Gov. Pillsbury, and largely by his instrumentality, those who were cognizant of the circumstances caused a memorial to be introduced in the Legislature, which was passed, asking Congress to allow indemnity selections for this deficiency. After some delay Congress granted such indemnity lands, aggregating 19,872 acres, and the Legislature of 1885 transferred them also to the board of regents for the purposes of a geological and natural history survey.

It is plain, therefore, that these indemnity lands which were wholly unknown and were procured through the discovery resulting from the voluntary search of the old records by the state geologist, should be credited wholly to the geological survey. At $5.00 per acre, which is the lowest price at which state lands can be sold, they are worth $99.360 as a minimum valuation. The Salt Spring lands already sold have brought an average price over $6.00 per acre.

The reports of the treasurer of the regents, from 1872 to July 31, 1899, show that the total cost of the Geological and Natural History survey, since its commencement to the date named, as disbursed by the regents, has been $172,152.33. These figures do not include that $10,000 appropriated by the legislature of 1887 and expended by the state geologist direct, and should be increased by $9,640.50 as stated above. As this includes all expenses, whether for zoology, botany or topography, all of which have been more or less actively prosecuted, especially in late years, the excess of such expense, above that which has been incurred for the geological survey proper and for the museum, should be credited indirectly to the geological survey proper. The funds have all been procured, not for botany nor for zoology; not for a natural history survey, but for a geological survey. The state geologist has borne the burden, on behalf of geology, before the legislative committees and before the public, and to this day the public press comments on the survey as a geological survey. The lands were appropriated with a view to completing the geological survey. It may be questioned whether any lands or any appropriations at all could have been procured for the prosecution of a natural history survey. It is only because we are here considering figures from a strictly geological point of view that this distinction is mentioned. There is a community of interests between the natural sciences and they should not be divorced except when from special circumstances a special inquiry needs to be made. It is reasonable, therefore, that the geological survey should be credited in a general sense with the amount of the total expenses incurred in excess of that incurred for the geological survey proper. This amounts to $25,795.06.

Allowing this general claim, however, to go for nothing, as it might be invidious to estimate it strictly in dollars and cents, it will only be claimed here that those services which have been rendered to the State which can be estimated in dollars and cents, in excess of the regular work of the state geologist and his assistants, should be credited to the geological survey, viz:

Total Summary.

*Since Jan.,1899, the cost of the Survey, as reported by Accountant Sprague, includes expenses of publication.

The geological survey proper has therefore in a large measure paid for itself in immediate and direct returns to the treasury of the State.

Nothing is said here of any of the benefits of the survey that cannot be computed as tangible results in dollars and cents, such as the development of the State's resources, nor of the credit the State gets for the maintenance of such a scientific and educational agency among the States of the Union. These less observable results, if the trouble should be taken to reduce them to dollars and cents, would far exceed the foregoing, as they constitute at once the chief purpose, and the crowning credit of the survey. Some of the intangible benefits of the survey were summarized by the writer some years ago, in BuIIetin No. 1, as they appeared at that date-1889.

Nothing is said above of the cost of printing the reports of the survey, whether economic or scientific, because such expenses have not been incurred under the survey law, and because the reports may at least be considered as worth to the State what it has cost to publish them, notwithstanding excessive irregularities and unnecessary expense under the present methods of public printing.