BUREAU or SOILS. 609 



tinned for the sprinpi: and snmmer of 1912. but will probably be re- 

 sumed again in the spring of 1913. Cooperative worlc was inaugu- 

 rated in 1912 in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, 

 and Ohio. Arrangements are already being made to cooperate with 

 Iowa and Minnesota in 1913. 



The demands made on the bureau for soil-survey men to carry on 

 this cooperative work with the States have been so great that it has 

 been practically impossible, with the appropriations at the disposal 

 of the bureau, to do any work in the Northern States except in those 

 cooperating, and in these oidy in such areas as the State and bureau 

 officials may mutually agree upon. In the Gulf States, where the 

 entire force is massed during the winter months, less than half the 

 men are engaged in cooperative work. So many projects have been 

 demanded by the cooperating States that the bureau has been able to 

 assign but one man to each project. This man is usually, however, 

 the head of the soil-survey party in that area, his assistant being a 

 State man. The bureau has been able to undertake but two projects 

 in noncooperating States out of a total of about 40 carried on in the 

 Northern States during the latter part of the fiscal year. As the 

 demands increase its whole force will be engaged in this work, unless 

 the resources of the bureau are increased. 



At the present time most of the cooperating States are prepared 

 to undertake more projects than those now in operation, but the 

 bureau has not been able to meet the States in this matter on account 

 of limited resources. 



SOILS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Detailed soil-survey work has been carried on in all parts of the 

 United States. It is probable that all the widely distributed and 

 important soils in the country have been encountered and identified 

 in one or more places. It is impossible that any very important soil 

 has escaped attention. A knowledge of the distribution, character, 

 and adaptabilities of these soils has accumulated to such an extent 

 that the bureau is able now to issue comprehensive reports on the 

 soil conditions in the country as a whole, as well as reports on the 

 important soils of the country under their various manifestations and 

 uses. Two years ago the first one of these reports was issued as Bul- 

 letin 78 of the Bureau of Soils, in which the nature and adaptabilities 

 of the soils east of the Great Plains were described. During the 

 past year the compiling of the second was begun and had been 

 Drought well toward completion at the close of the fiscal year. It 

 includes a revision, in the light of recent data, of the work of two 

 years ago and for the first time a complete classification and descrip- 

 tion of the soils of the western part of the United States so far as 

 they have been encountered in the soil survey. The complete report 

 will contain, therefore, a description of the soils of the whole coun- 

 try and a consideration of their present and prospective uses. Re- 

 vised editions of this report will be issued from time to time as the 

 accumulated data warrant. 



SOIL CLASSinCATION. 



On account of the broad scope of the soil-survey work, the area it 

 covers, and the many soils encountered, the proper grouping and 



70481°— AGB 1912 39 



