DEVELOPMENT OP OEGANIZATION FOE LAND CLASSIFICATION. 13 



This interpretation by Director King of the duties imposed upon 

 the new bureau by that clause in the organic act charging him with 

 responsibility for the classification of the public lands prevailed in 

 part until about 1906, when the pressing need of the Department of 

 the Interior for an adequate classification of mineral lands for pur- 

 poses of administration led to a revival of this suspended function 

 of the Geological Survey, not, as Director King seemed to think 

 necessary, by superseding the machinery of the General Land Office, 

 but by cooperation, financial and administrative, between that bu- 

 reau and the Survey and by a series of orders from the Secretary 

 of the Interior, to whom both bureaus report. These orders so de- 

 fine the part that each is to bear in public-land administration as to 

 make the Survey chiefly responsible for the physical classifications. 



At first the work was concentrated largely on the classification and 

 valuation of coal land, and this phase continues to be quantitatively 

 the most important. In the Twenty-eighth Annual Eeport of the 

 Survey, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1907, in discussing the 

 work on the coal lands Director Smith makes this statement : 



Special investigations were conducted last year to determine the extent of 

 the coal lands remaining in the possession of the Government and the quality 

 and value of the coal deposits on these public lands. This work will be contin- 

 ued on a larger scale and under a more comprehensive plan. Special attention 

 will be given to the classification and valuation of the coal lands and their 

 prompt segregation from the noncoal lands. This work is to be provided for by 

 a joint allotment from the appropriations for the geologic and topographic sur- 

 veys and that for testing coals belonging to the Government, and the General 

 Land OflBce is also cooperating. 



The Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the Survey, for the fiscal year 

 ended June 30, 1908, includes with some matter on the special fea- 

 tures of the work of the Survey a discussion of land classification, 

 which contains the following statement: 



In the last few years the Geological Survey has broadened the scope of Its 

 work in the classification of the mineral lands of the public domain. At the time 

 of the organization of the Survey the classification Intended by Congress was 

 believed to be general in character and such as conid be expressed on maps 

 issued for the general information of the people. The present interpretation 

 of the law is that the classification should be more definite, and therefore, 

 during the last year, the Survey has continued its special field surveys of the 

 coal lands belonging to the Government. * * * 



Increased demands have also been made on the mining geologists of the 

 Survey for assistance in determining the mineral or nonmineral character of 

 land for which title from the Government Is sought. 



This work, which has become an increasingly important feature of 

 the Survey's activities, was definitely recognized by the organization, 

 in December, 1908, of a land-classification board as a section of the 

 geologic branch, and by the reorganization of the board on May 1, 

 1912, into a branch coordinate in rank with the other Survey branches. 



