84 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
because.there is a demand for their work; but they leave with us a 
suggestion that these soils can be used for other crops than are there 
growing, and we have organized a little force of men to go down there 
and take up such problems as that and try to convince those people 
that we are in earnest and there is a chance of their succeeding. 
Mr. Lams. I do not know where it is needed more than they need 
it in Virginia. 
Mr. Wuirney. Yes, sir; I have had a piteous appeal from Doctor 
Stubbs, of the Louisiana Experiment Station, to go into Gloucester 
County, in eastern Virginia, and tell those people what they can do 
with their soils. We are spending now $6,580 on that, and in our 
estimates we included $1,000 to enable us to do more work on those 
lines. That is the sum of the increases asked for. 
Mr. Scorr. The question I asked a moment ago was whether you 
could give us briefly an-outline of the work that your soil-survey par- 
ties do. 
Mr. Waurtney. The soil-survey parties usually embrace two men, 
one of them an experienced man, the other a less experienced man; 
sometimes more than two men. They go into an area, making their 
temporary headquarters at some town or village. They hire a team, 
and they are supplied with an auger for boring samples of the area 
from 3 to 6 feet in depth. They judge from the texture and 
appearance of the soils as to the class or type the soil belongs to. They 
go over the territory that is mapped out for them with the best map 
we can find, and if we can not find an accurate map we have to correct 
the maps by an outline on the map of the different characters of soils. 
These men have had a great deal of experience. They are wonder- 
fully acute in judging of these matters, and the map as they prepare 
it in the field comes to the Department for revision. They prepare a 
report stating briefly the location of the area, the character of the 
climate which prevails there, the character of the geology, so far as 
we know it, very briefly, and then describing the soils—not only the 
character of the soils, but the crops which in their judgment, as well as 
the judgment of the people of the locality, are adapted to them. They 
describe the drainage conditions, and finally send in samples to the 
office of all types of soil; and we have a mechanical analysis made to 
show the texture, and we compare the soils here with one another. 
We have now a collection of 10,000 samples from all over the country 
which we use just as you would use an encyclopedia. When a sam- 
ple comes in that is described we read the description and we take the 
sample down and compare it actually with samples that have been col- 
lected all over the country. That is the way an area is surveyed, and 
we get these maps [indicating] of which you have all doubtless seen 
samples. 
Mr. Bowie. What county is that? 
Mr. Wurtney. This is Jamesville. 
Mr. Scorr. How much ground is usually surveyed by one party in 
one place? 
Mr. Witney. The average size of our areas is 453 square miles, 
and our men can make a survey of that size in approximately three 
months. 
Mr. Scorr. And the number of samples they take is determined, I 
presume, by the homogenity of the soil. : 
Mr. Watney. Yes. The uniformity of the soil. 
