BUREAU OF SOILS. 293 



the soils ill their prospective or actual holdings and concerning the 

 kinds of crops Avhich may be most profitably produced thereon. 

 This section Has also assisted in the preparation of exhibits to be 

 shown at a number of the more important agricultural fairs. 



Science is international rather than national. The results attained 

 ill one country may have very great influence on the workers in 

 other countries, so that it is desirable that the Avorkers along the 

 same lines in ditferent countries should keep in touch with each other. 

 In order that this be done in soil-survey work, and in order that the 

 soils in the United States might be compared with the soils in 

 Europe, an employee of the bureau was sent abroad for three months, 

 April 1 to July 1. He visited Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Kumania, 

 Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece, Germany, and England, studying and 

 collecting sam]iles of typical soils in parts of those countries. Most 

 of the samples collected have been received in the bureau and will be 

 taken up for such analytical work as seems advisable. 



Calls on the Soil Survey by the Department of Justice for expert 

 testimony relative to changing State boundaries and also as to the 

 value of land for camp sites were made during the year. Represent- 

 atives of the Soil Survey made a detailed map of the soils of the 

 Ked River bottoms, in the vicinity of the Burkburnett oil field, for 

 the purpose of showing the process by which the bottoms were built 

 up. this fact having an important bearing on the settlement of a 

 boundary dispute between Texas and Oklahoma. The question as 

 to whether the land in controversy was formed by accretion or by 

 avulsion would practically decide' the issue, and consequently ex- 

 tremely detailed soil maps", profile maps of deep borings, and careful 

 mechanical analyses of material were necessary in order to determine 

 the presence or absence of a gradation from coarse to finer alhivial 

 sediments from the edge of the bottoms toward the uplands. 



Testimony of experts of the Soil Survey was credited with having 

 saved the Government approximately $500,000 in settlement of the 

 Fort Bragg land cases. In one case the court ordered the ap- 

 praisers' valuation changed from $520,000 to $311,000, and many 

 other cases were settled in about the same proportion. 



CHEMICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



The research work of the chemical division, as in the preceding 

 year, was confined largely to the investigation of soil colloids, and 

 "it is felt that distinct progress has been made in several phases of 

 this investigation. 



By altering somewhat the methods of treatment, the bureau has 

 beeii able to extract a much larger part of the total colloidal matter 

 in the soil than had hitherto been found possible. It has therefore 

 been able to confirm the conclusion, arrived at by less direct methods, 

 that some soils may contain 50 per cent or more of truly colloidal 

 matter. In the case of a very heavy clay soil 42 per cent of colloidal 

 matter was actuallv isolated. 



Heretofore the general conception among soil scientists has been 

 that while the colloidal matter is one of the most important con- 

 stituents of the soil, it forms only a relatively small part of the 

 whole soil— less than 2 per cent in "most cases. If soils contain 5 to 

 50 per cent of colloid instead of 1 to 2 per cent, it will obviously be 



