BUREAU OF SOILS. 497 



the value of soil maps in the planning of comprehensive study of 

 agricultural conditions. 



During the past year many inquiries have been received from 

 experiment-station officers in States not now cooperating with the 

 Bureau concerning possible cooperation with them, and it seems 



Erobable that within a very few years every State in the Union will 

 e cooperating with the Bureau in soil work or will be desirous of 

 doing so. 



Many of the agricultural experiment stations are conducting 

 various kinds of experiments on crop adaptations, variety tests, 

 fertilizer tests, rotation experiments, and various kinds of agricul- 

 tural surveys, while others are planning such work. By all these 

 organizations the Bureau is sought for advice about the soil, and soil 

 surveys are sought. The soil survey and mapping of the soils is 

 regarded as the preliminary and fundamental exploratory and 

 research work that furnishes the necessary foundation for all experi- 

 mental work on the relation of soils to crops. The Soil Survey is 

 coming more and more to be regarded as an institution for funda- 

 mental soil study in the field as a preliminary to all experimental 

 work. Its work is not final, and the fact is now well recognized 

 that it can not and does not pretend to solve all the problems of 

 agriculture. 



It is, however, a well-established and recognized fact that soil 

 surveys are more or less consciously agricultural surveys. The 

 student of the soil in the field (the soil surveyor) is ever on the watch 

 for soil differences and seeks to recognize all the man}'- facts indi- 

 cating such differences, whatever they may be. lie becomes a 

 student of crops, therefore, as indicators of soil character. He is 

 not an experimentalist. He studies the natural adaptabilities of 

 the soil as expressed in the natural vegetation and in the varied 

 success gained by man under the many methods adopted by the 

 farmers in any one region. The natural vegetation has adjusted 

 itself to soil conditions. Man in most cases in America has not done 

 so, but is unconsciously endeavoring to do so. The complete adjust- 

 ment has not and probably never will be reached by any one mdi- 

 vidual, but it may be reached in one particular by one and in another 

 by another individual. It will be well within the province of the 

 field student of soils to seek out these isolated instances and combine 

 them. By such studies he gradually acquires a knowledge of soil 

 adaptabilities. To this extent soil surveys may legitimately go 

 beyond the first step in fundamental work. 



ORGANIZATION. 



The organization and work of the Bureau of Soils have been along 

 essentially the same lines as during the previous vear. The interest 

 in the work of the Bureau of Soils is growing rapidly and the demjinds 

 for work in different parts of the country are increasing, and it is 

 believed that the results of the work in showing the conditions and 

 resources of the soils of the country and in giving the people precise 

 and accurate knowledge as to the possibilities of the soils justify 

 fully every expenditure that has been made and every recommenda- 

 tion that will be made for the further extension of tne work. 



73477°— AGB 1910 32 



