EEPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF SOILS. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



Bureau of Soils, 

 Washington^ D. C.^^'overriber i, 191^. 



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, 

 1912. 



Kespectfully, Milton Whitney, 



Chief of Bureau, 

 Hon. Jambs Wilson, 



Seci'etai^ of Agriculture. 



PROGRESS OF THE SOIL SURVEY. 



THE year's work. 



During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912, soil surveys were made 

 of 181,114 square miles, or 115,912,960 acres — an area 50 per cent 

 larger than Great Britain and Ireland. Of this amount 31,304 square 

 miles, or 20,034.560 acres, were surveyed in detail and maps have been 

 or will be published on a scale of 1 mile to 1 inch. This work was 

 distributed in 28 States. The remainder of the total area, namely, 

 149,810 square miles, or 95,878,400 acres, was mapped on reconnois- 

 sance scales of 4 or 6 miles to 1 inch. These maps show only the more 

 general facts regarding the classification and distribution of soil ma- 

 teriah The reconnoissance surveys have been principally confined to 

 the semiarid region and have covered the western half of the States 

 of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, the Panhandle of 

 Texas, and a large area in south Texas, making almost a continuous 

 strip from Canada to Mexico. 



The total area of soil surveyed and mapped in the United States 

 from the beginning of the work to June 30, 1912, deducting for the 

 few overlapping areas between the general reconnoissance and the 

 detailed surveys, js 622,595 square miles, or 398,460,800 acres. De- 

 ducting the sparsely settled Kocky Mountain region, the Northwest 

 intermountain region, the Great Basin region, and the arid Southwest, 

 where about 1 per cent of the soils have been surveyed, 29.2 per cent 

 of the soils of the wuntry have been classified and mapped. 



The re]:)ort of the Field Operations for (he calendar year 1910 is 

 about ready to be issued by the Public Printer, and the reports and 



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