172 DEPAKTMENTAL REPOETS. 



It seems desirable to assign a party to this State for six uionths' 

 work during the next field season. 



OHIO. 



During the past fiscal year work has been started in the Colunilins 

 area and in the Toledo area, and it is believed these will both be com- 

 pleted by the end of the present field season. The surveys are being 

 made under the direction of Mr. W. G. Smith. 



The Columbus area is devoted to general farming. While there is 

 a certain uniformity in the soils, one of the principal soils is pre- 

 eminently a wheat land and another chiefly a corn land, the character 

 of the soils showing very strongly their peculiar agricultural values in 

 the crops produced and in the success of these crops. 



It is proposed to assign a party to this State during the next field 

 season to survey a part of Ashtabula County in the interest of the 

 fruit and tobacco growers. 



OREGON, 



No surveys have been made in this State, but it is proposed to 

 assign a party there for six months during the next field season to sur- 

 vey an area around Salem, in the Willamette Valley. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



During the past fiscal year a survey of the Lebanon area, in the 

 interest of tobacco growers and general farming, was completed under 

 the direction of Mr. Smith. The interest taken in the survey around 

 Lancaster leads me to believe that the results of this work will be 

 found of interest and practical value in the still higher development 

 of the agricultural conditions of the locality. 



It seems desirable to assign a party for three months during the 

 next field season to make a soil survey of Clinton County, particularly 

 in the interest of the tobacco growers. 



PORTO RICO. 



During the past fiscal year an area of 330 square miles was surveyed 

 in a strip about 10 miles wide, extending from Arecibo to Ponce, the 

 work being in charge of Messrs. Dorsey and Mesmer. Twenty-two 

 types of soils were recognized, all of them markedly different from 

 the soils encountered in the XInited States. Much of the country is 

 rugged, broken, and mountainous, and as there were no available 

 maps, the base map had to be made as the soil survey progressed. 

 Many of these soils are not well adapted to agriculture, but the report 

 deals fully with the conditions as they were actually seen, and it is 

 believed that it will form a basis for a more intelligent development 

 of the agriculture of the island. 



It is deemed advisable that this survey should be extended to 

 include the whole area of the island, of which about one-tenth is 

 included in the area already survej^ed, but under a change made in the 

 wording of the appropriation bill it will be impossible for the Bureau 

 of Soils to continue this work. It will be recommended that such 

 changes be made in the next appropriation act as will enable the 

 Department to resume operations in Porto Rico. I know of no more 

 valuable work the Department can do than to thus investigate the 

 actual conditions in these Island possessions, and the extension of 



