17fi , DEPAKTMENTAL EEFOETS. 



ter known, many requests are coming from Senators and Representa- 

 tives, and the opinion is freely expressed that the full value of the 

 work can not be secured unless there is a liberal provision for its dis- 

 tribution within the area in which the work has been done. The 

 requests for reprints of the 1901 report indicate that from 3,000 to 

 10,000 copies will be required to satisfy the demand, notwithstanding 

 the fact that some of the States are ordering reprints of the maps of 

 the areas in their respective States for their own distribution. 



In view of these facts, it is recommended that the joint resolution be 

 so amended as to permit of the Report of the Field Operations of the 

 Bureau of Soils being published in parts or volumes as the work is 

 completed. That there should also be reprinted of the separate 

 reports, with their accompanying illustrations and soil maps, editions 

 sufficient to allow 500 for each Senator to whose State the survey 

 relates, 2,000 for each Representative in whose district the survey may 

 be made, and 1,000 for the use of the Department of Agriculture. 

 This will insure the prompt publication of the results of the survey 

 and a distribution through Members of Congress, which mj^ present 

 information seems to indicate is desirable if the full value of the soil 

 survey work is to be attained in the dissemination of the information 

 thus gathered, jjromptly and freely, to the people who are interested. 



Needed Legislation for Insular Surveys. 



It seems desirable that the benefits derived from the soil survey 

 work should be extended to the insular possessions of the United 

 States, aiul I recommend that the act making appropriation for the 

 Bureau of Soils be so worded as to permit of the sending of soil survey 

 parties to Porto Rico and Hawaii. Numerous demands have come 

 for the extension of the work in both Porto Rico and Hawaii, and it 

 seems i^robable that the work will be of particular value to these 

 islands in the present state of the building up of their agricultural 

 resources. 



The work has already been started in Porto Rico and in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, the latter through cooperation with the War Department 

 and the civil government of the islands, in the detail of Mr. Clarence 

 W. Dorsey to the Pliilippine government and the defraying of his 

 salary and the expenses of the soil survey work by that government. 

 The work can not be continued in Porto Rico nor started by the 

 Department in any other of our iwssessions without a chauge in the 

 wording of the appropriation act. 



Investigations in Soil Management. 



In the development of the soil survey many questions are presented 

 of the possibility of improved methods of cultivation and handling of 

 the crops, as well as of introducing new methods, new crops, and new 

 industries. Some of these suggestions need more time and more study 

 than can be given by the soil-survey parties in the limited time in 

 which they remain in an area. Furthermore, the presentation of such 

 suggestions in printed reports is apt to fail of securing proper recog- 

 nition from the conservative farmer, Avho follows pretty much the 

 methods used by himself and his predecessors on the land. Without 

 these further s1 udies and a practical demonstration of their efficiency 

 many of the important results of the soil survey are liable to be lost. 



For these reasons a division of soil management has been instituted in 



