DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIZATION FOE LAND CLASSIFICATION. 17 



Government department, by other bureaus, by public officials, or by 

 citizens, prompt response can be made in the light of all action there- 

 tofore taken affecting that subdivision. 



Because the laws applicable to coal lands, unlike those providing 

 for the disposal of lands containing other minerals, authorize not 

 merely the classification of the public domain as coal or noncoal land 

 but the valuation and sale of the coal land at prices to be fixed in 

 accordance with the quantity, quality, and accessibility of the coal, 

 more complete action is possible in dealing with coal lands than with 

 others, and the very completeness of action required involves corre- 

 spondingly difficult problems. 



Similar sections have been organized within the division of mineral 

 classification for dealing with lands that may contain oil and gas, 

 phosphate, and other nonmetalliferous minerals and for such limited 

 and special classifications of metalliferous land as are required by law. 

 The organization of each of these sections is similar to that of the 

 coal section, and the action taken by them follows similar lines. 

 Members of the land-classification board act as chairmen of the oil 

 and gas section, the phosphate section, and the metalliferous section. 

 Other members of the sections are selected from geologists who are 

 engaged in field work on the particular resource which is the subject 

 matter of the board's action. 



A similar but less formal organization has been effected for the 

 division of hydrographic classification. This division deals with 

 those phases of land classification that depend on water supply and 

 that involve the solution of engineering problems. The division's 

 chief task is the classification of lands according to their irrigability 

 and their power value, but it also reports on various complex prob- 

 lems which are involved in the consideration of miscellaneous rights 

 of way. This division is administered by the chief engineer of the 

 board. As occasion may demand, sections are organized within it 

 for disposing of the various problems that arise. At present (1913) 

 there are two such sections, one dealing with water powers and the 

 other with irrigation. Each section consists of a chairman and two 

 or more additional members, usually chosen from the engineers or 

 hydrographic geologists of the water-resources branch. The section 

 thus constitutes a committee which, like the sections in the division 

 of mineral classification, may give preliminary consideration to a 

 problem of classification- (under the enlarged-homestead act, , for 

 example), or it may prepare instructions for the guidance of the 

 field engineer or geologist and later give consideration to the data 

 that he has obtained and prepare appropriate recommendations. The 

 field branch with which these sections necessarily maintain closest 

 relations is the watar-resources branch, although their relation with 

 T8894°— Bull. 537—13 2 



