REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF SOILS. 



United States Department of Agiiiculture, 



Bureau of Soils, 

 Washington, D. C ., September 15, 1917. 

 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, 

 1917. 



Respectfull)^, Miltox AVhitnet, 



Chief of Bureau. 

 Hon. D. F. Houston, 



Secretai^y of Agriculture. 



SOIL SURVEY. 



The work of constructing the soil map of the United States was 

 carried on by the Soil Survey during the 3'ear and an area of 37,225 

 square miles of mapped country was added to that previously 

 mapped in detail, bringing the total area covered to date up to 

 445,825 square miles. This is approximately a fourth of that part 

 of the total area of the United States that will be covered by detailed 

 surveys. The rest of the area consists of deserts and mountainous 

 country that will be mapped by reconnoissance methods and at a 

 rate much more rapid than that at which detailed work is done 

 and at a much lower cost. * 



During the year 9,182 square miles were covered in reconnoissance 

 work, bringing the whole area mapped in that way to dftte up to 

 493,494 square miles. With the exception of the reconnoissance work 

 done in Ohio, all this work has been done either in regions of rough 

 topogi-aphy or in those where development had not gone very far at 

 the time the Avork was done. More than half of it has been done in 

 the Great Plains region east of the Rocky Mountains. 



The best results in a work like that of the Soil Survey are obtained 

 by a combination of detailed local knowledge with that of a com- 

 prehensive nature. The work can best be done b}' parties of men 

 made up in part of those with broad laiowledge of soil conditions 

 over a wide area combined with sound training in the fundamental 

 principles of soil development and in part by men who are thor- 

 oughly familiar with local conditions and needs. This is effected 

 by the Soil Survey by intimate cooperation between the Bureau of 

 Soils and some State institution charged with the investigation of 

 soils or agriculture in the State concerned. This cooperation is in 

 most cases an active one in which the State and the Government 

 pay the cost of the work jointly. In other cases, those in which the 

 State is unable to cooperate in an active way on account of lack of 

 funds, a sympathetic coojicration generally is maintained, the 

 Bureau of Soils consulting the State officials in the selection of areas 

 to be mapped and in other details of the work. 



At the close of the fiscal year 1917 the Bureau of Soils was co- 

 operating actively in soil-survey work with 20 States and sympa- 



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