REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF SOILS. 



United States Department of Agricultuke, 



Bureau of Soils. 

 Washington, D. C, August 19, 1920. 



Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith a report covering the 

 operations of the Bureau of Soils for the fiscal year ended June 30, 

 1920. 



Respectfully, 



Milton Whitney, 



Chief of Bureau. 

 Hon. E. T. Meredith, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



> INTRODUCTION. 



Sufficient time has now elapsed since the armistice to enable us to 

 consider carefull}- and take stock of the achievements of the bureau 

 during the feverish activities of the period of actual war and during 

 the months of readjustment that followed. This survey brings out 

 the fact that both in soil work and in fertilizer investigations many 

 important advances have been made, with results that it is imperative 

 to save and to introduce into commercial activities. To fail in this 

 would be to lose a great opportunity to develop and perfe; t new com- 

 mercial enterprises for the reconstruction period before us. 



SOIL SURVEY. 



During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920, detailed soil surveys 

 were completed or begun in 67 different areas, located in 31 different 

 States. The area surveyed in these projects was 29,784 square miles 

 or 19,061,700 acres. Reconnoissance surveys conducted in Texas cov- 

 ered 11,825 square miles, or 7,568,000 acres. 



The total area covered by detailed surveys from the inception of 

 the work to and including June 30, 1920, amounts to 547,733 square 

 miles, or 350,549,120 acres, and by reconnoissance surveys 516.286 

 square miles, or 330,423,040 acres. "This is a total of 1,064,019 sijuare 

 miles, or one-third of continental United States. There are in the 

 Western States of course large areas of mountain lands and of 

 deserts, where there is no immediate prospect of irrigation or of 

 grazing, for which there will likely be no need of .soil surveys. 



The following tables show the areas surveyed during the fiscal 

 year just closed and the total area surveyed in each State up to the 

 present time : 



2S5 



