PROPOSAJ, OF AN AGRICULTURAL SURVEY ON A 

 GEOGRAPHIC BASTS. 



BY C. O. SAIUOR. 



The iinniodiiite occasion for this pajoer is the jiroposed establishment of a soil 

 sur\e3- by the State of Michigan. The creation of such a survey marks an im- 

 portant step in government aid to the development of the resources of the state. 

 The manner in which it is organized at the outset will virtually determine the 

 eflFectiveness of the entire project. A county is surveyed but once, and after- 

 thoughts are of no avail. A full expression and exchange of opinion by the inter- 

 ested parties is desirable therefore at this time. The geographer is one of these 

 interested parties, not numerously represented to be sure, l)ut as his interests 

 corres])ond in the main to those of the farmer and l)usiness man, tiieir definition 

 may be of general value. 



Geograpliy is a young science, concerned with a vast field. It is 

 necessary therefore to select the most urgent lines of study and to con- 

 centrate upon these. The most urgent demand of the science is along 

 lines of regional studies, to supply a larger body of systematic observa- 

 tions than are now available. In the prosecution of such studies geog- 

 raphy is handicapped l)y the lack of formal surveys such as have been 

 developed in most of the other natural sciences. In the past there have 

 been so-called geographic surveys. In the future, there may be provision 

 for truly geographic surveys. But at present the geographer must rely 

 in large })art on the field work of other scientific organizations, as 

 geologic, typographic, biologic, and soil surveys. The manner of their 

 execution therefore is of great moment to the success of regional geog- 

 raphy, on which in turn tlie develo})ment of the entire science of 

 geograpliy depends in considerable measure. 



In the United States, the soil surveys are undoubtedly the greatest 

 single aid to regional geography, partly because of tlie importance of 

 rural interests in our country, but more particularly because of tlie 

 specific form whicli the soil survey has taken. It has been conducted 

 almost entirely by the Bureau of Soils of tlie Department of Agriculture, 

 and as thus carried on has the primary purpose of suggesting improve- 

 ments in agricultural practice and of guiding the prospective purchaser 

 of land in his selection.* It is evident immediately that such a survey 

 must concern itself with many more things than the classification of 

 soil types and their mapping. The survey inevitably becomes an inquiry 



19th Mich. Acad. Sol. Kept., HUT. 



*See Whitnev, Yearlmok Dept. Asric, UMll, IH; Honsteel, ibid. 1!10(), IHI; Whitney, 

 Bureau of Soils Circular lo. 



