496 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of lliis Department, as ■well as with other departments of the Gov- 

 ernment. Such cooperation has been particularly close vaih state 

 orjjanizations in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 West Viri^jinia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, 

 AYisconsin, and Washiii,^ton. 



All these States with which we are now cooperating are planning 

 to continue the work, and most of them are desirous of increasing 

 the rate at which the work is being done. 



These States make special appro])riations for soil-survey work. 

 The funds are atlministered by some of the previously existing state 

 organizations, either the agricultural experiment stations, state 

 boards of agriculture, or state geological surveys. The cooperative 

 agreements between these organizations and the Bureau provide for 

 an approximately equal sharing of the expense of the work by each 

 institution. The Bureau in each case controls the work so far as the 

 methods of procedure arc concerned. The determination of the 

 relations of the various soils are made by the Bureau men also. In 

 those States whore there are local men who are thoroughly familiar with 

 the local geological and agricultural conditions the details of soil 

 differentiation are left, to a considerable extent, to them. The 

 Bureau by this arrangement profits by the intimate local knowledge 

 of the state officials, and the latter, on the other hand, profit by the 

 broad knowledge of the Bureau staff. The work done is just as 

 much the Bureau's work as is that done in any of the noncooperating 

 States, because it is done according to the Bureau's methods. It is 

 equally the work of the state organizations, since it incorporates the 

 results of their special local knowledge. At the same time the 

 States avoid the expense of developing a plan of work and training a 

 corps of field men of their own. Each party to the agreement profits 

 by the special knowledge of the other and in so doing sacrifices 

 nothing whatever. 



The detailed survey work of the Bureau is gradually becoming 

 more and more accurate. This increases the cost somewhat above 

 that of the earlier more generalized work. As a rule, the work carried 

 out under cooperative agreements is the most detailed woik that is 

 done. The cost is therefore a little higher per square mile than is 

 that of the work done in the noncooperating States. The cost to 

 the Bureau, however, is less than the latter work, since it pays only 

 about half the expense. It accomplishes a higher grade of work at a 

 less cost per square mile than it is able to accomplish in the other 

 States. 



The increased demands for cooperative work should be met by 

 appropriations made especially for this purpose, in addition to the 

 usual appropriations for pushing the work m those States that are 

 not yet ready to appropriate money for carrying on their part of any 

 cooperative agreements \nth the Bureau. 



The soil mapping in a number of States has already extended over 

 more than half their area. It is thought to be especially desirable 

 that the work in some, at least, of these States should be pushed to 

 completion as rapidly as possible in order that such States and such 

 work may be utilized for the planning and execution of experimental 

 work on a comprehensive scale. It seems especially desirable to 

 have a soil map of a whole State completed in order to test more thor- 

 oughly than has been possible on the isolated areas mapped so far 



