ipal stations. An earthen vessel of peculiar shape and markings
will be sunk below the first line, and its centre clearly marked. Above
this will be placed a squared stone projecting from the ground. The
latter will be the visible base of operations in common use, but the
former will be the permanent and authoritative reference in case of any
difficulty or doubt. It is intended to establish these points about
twelve miles apart, and their positions will be determined by careful
astronomical observations, checked by accurate measurements of their
distance from neighboring stations. Wherever the nature of the ground
compels the placing of these stations at distances inconveniently great,
subordinate points will be established in the intermediate ground. In
the present working ground the highlands which bound the Mohawk valley
on the north and south afford admirable positions for these stations.

The director of the survey reports that the work is well received by
farmers, and he gives some excellent reasons why it should be. Boundary
marks have so generally disappeared that in tracing the boundaries of
eleven counties where sixty corners had been made, only two were found.
It is a part of Mr. Gardner's plan to preserve these old lines, marking
them in a permanent manner. The cost of bad work appears to have been
very large to the people. The citizens of the State spend $40,000 for
maps that are really worthless. Designing persons obtain aid for
improper enterprises by exhibiting false maps, and there is no means of
disproving their assertions. Counties and towns have contributed large
sums to such projects, and the total is estimated at forty million
dollars. Half of this was paid for the Oswego Midland railroad, which
Mr. Gardner says would never have been built had its supporters known
the character of the country it would cross and the ruinous original
cost and running expenses involved in its heavy cuttings and high
grades. The cost of surveying the whole State is estimated at $200,000
for the trigonometrical work, which is all that is now projected. To
this must eventually be added topography and mapping, though these are
not necessary for fixing boundaries. Still, the whole sum required,
distributed as it would be over ten years' time, would be a light burden
and a remunerative expenditure.

* * * * *

THE USE OF AIR IN ORE DRESSING.

A correspondent, Mr. M. F. M. Cazin, w