266 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1938 



and recreational use of the parks. The Tennessee Valley Authority 

 has asked assistance in the valuation of mineral-bearing lands about 

 to be flooded. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the 

 Securities and Exchange Commission have called upon the Survey 

 for advice in their respective fields as to applications for loans of 

 public funds and as to issuing permits to sell securities based on under- 

 lying mineral properties. 



On the other hand, a number of Federal organizations, recognizing 

 the need of geologic information and advice, have attached geologists 

 to their staffs or have built up separate geologic staffs in order to 

 obtain more direct control of such work for their special purposes. 

 Among these are the Army Engineer Corps, the Reclamation Service, 

 National Park Service, the Soil Conservation Service, and the Tennessee 

 Valley Authority. The increasing tendency of such organizations to 

 seek geologic advice indicates a growing appreciation of the varied 

 services geology may render. 



State geological surveys. — Before the Federal Government took 

 cognizance of geology as an aid to the better understanding and 

 solution of its problems affecting mineral lands and resources, some 

 of the States had established geological surveys and published reports. 

 The two Carolinas, North Carolina in 1823, and South Carolina in 

 1824, were the first to take steps in this direction, followed by Massa- 

 chusetts in 1830. From that time on more and more States have 

 taken up geologic investigations. Most of the early surveys were 

 discontinued, but many were revived, some of them several times. 

 The New York Survey, however, has been broadly continuous in its 

 activity and name since its inception in 1836. Now the only States 

 that appear to make no specific provision for geologic work within 

 their boundaries are Delaware and Massachusetts. 3 The State sur- 

 veys, though held within State lines and thus restricted in their fields 

 of operation, have given an excellent account of themselves and have 

 rendered most valuable service to their people and to the country as a 

 whole, as well as to geological science. 



Services rendered by official surveys. — Besides the applications of 

 geology in the fields of engineering, construction, and search for sup- 

 plies of different minerals, which to a greater or less extent are regular 

 duties of official surveys, its application in land classification, water- 

 supply problems, sanitation, legal questions, and miscellaneous in- 

 formation service deserves attention. 



Land classification was one of the duties imposed on the Geological 

 Survey by its organic act, but little systematic geologic work was done 

 in this connection until the rise of the conservation movement in the 

 first decade of this century. Attention then was focused on such 



» Massachusetts, through its Department of Public Works, in 1938 has undertaken a comprehensive, 

 detailed study of its geology and mineral resources, in cooperation with the Federal Geological Survey. 



