DEVELOPMENT OF OHGANIZATION FOB LAND CLASSIFICATION. 11 



It is noteworthy that the authors of the sections of this publica- 

 tion describing the procedure enaployed in the work have themselves 

 originated for the most part the methods that are so essential to 

 successful and authoritative land classification. Mention should also 

 be made here, however, of the important part played by A. C. Veatch, 

 the chairman of the land-classification board at the time of its organi- 

 zation, by C. Willard Hayes and Waldemar Lindgren, former chief 

 geologists of the Survey, and by M. R. Campbell, who has been in 

 charge of the geologic work in the western coal fields continuously 

 since 1906 and has supervised the preparation of the sections on 

 geologic field methods in this bulletin. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE SURVEY'S ORGANIZATION FOR 

 LAND CLASSIFICATION. 



The report of the committee of the National Academy of Sciences 

 on the surveys of the Territories, prepared in accordance with the 

 terms of a clause in the sundry civil bill approved June 30, 1878 

 (20 Stat., 206, 230), contains these statements indicating the opinion 

 of the committee as to the land-classification functions of the bureaus 

 whose organization its members were recommending: 



The best interests of the public domain require, for the purposes of intelli- 

 gent administration, a thorough knowledge of its geologic structure, natural 

 resources, and products. The domain embraces a vast mineral wealth in its 

 soils, metals, salines, stones, clays, etc. To meet the requirements of existing 

 laws in the disposition of the agricultural, mineral, pastoral, timber, desert, 

 and swamp lands, a thorough investigation and classification of the acreage of 

 the public domain is imperatively demanded. * * * 



The Land Office shall also call upon the United States Geological Survey for 

 all information as to the value and classification of lands. * * * 



The publications of the Geological Survey should consist of an annual report 

 of operations, geological and economic maps illustrating the resources and classi- 

 fication of the lands, reports upon general and economic geology In all its 

 branches, with the necessarily connected paleontology. 



Maj. J. W. Powell, reporting to the Secretary of the Interior on 

 November 1, 1878, in response to the request of the acting president 

 of the National Academy of Sciences to trajismit any information 

 available in the Department of the Interior as to surveys then in 

 existence, after listing the classes of lands recognized under the laws, 

 adds the following comment: 



An examination of the laws * * * will show that the classes of lands 

 mentioned above are therein recognized, and in the administration of the laws 

 relating to these lands those belonging to each specific class must be deter- 

 mined ; but no adequate provision is made for securing an accurate classifica- 

 tion, and to a large extent the laws are inoperative or practically void ; for ex- 

 ample, coal lands should be sold at $10 or $20 per acre, but, the department 

 having no means of determining what lands belong to this cl*ss, titles to coal 

 lands are usually obtained under the provisions of statutes that relate to lands 



