302 The American Geologist. ^^^^' ^^'^^• 
was able to furnish for the report of i860. Biit the hghts then 
obtained encouraged me to persevere in the same line of inves- 
tigation, in the face of much adverse criticism, when wider op- 
portunities presented themselves afterwards. By the aid of 
these I think I may fairly claim, that the right of soil analysis to 
be. considered as an essential and often decisive factor in the 
a priori estimation of the cultural value of virgin soils, has been 
well established alongside of the limitations imposed by phys- 
ical and climatic conditions, and by previous intervention of 
culture.* 
\\'\t\\ the recognition of these facts, the importance of agri- 
cultural surveys to the population of especially the newer states 
and territories becomes sufficiently obvious to command at least 
the same attention as those investigations directed specially to 
the recognition of the geological and mineral resources of the 
same regions ; and the "classification of lands," provided for 
imder the law creating the United States Geological Survey, 
assumes a new and more pressing significance. Even apart 
from any special investigations of soil composition, the right 
of the agricultural interests to at least a good, intelligent and 
intelligible description of the surface features of a region, 
given with respect to its agricultural capabilities and its attrac- 
tions for settlers, can hardly be denied. With the additional 
possibilities opened by the intelligent application of soil investi- 
gation, there is no excuse for the neglect, sometimes almost ab- 
solute, with which this branch of the public surveys has thus 
far mostly been treated by those charged with their execution. 
Dr. David Dale Owen was, among the older American geol- 
ogists, the one who most steadily kept the agricultural interests 
in view, and gave them prominence in his researches and re- 
ports. While my personal intercourse with him predisposed 
me to follow his example in this respect, niy further experience 
has onl\- served to strengthen my conviction that a reasonable 
proportion of attention given to agricultural work w^ould efifcct- 
iially smooth the path of our state surveys, whose fate is for- 
ever trembling in the balance at each reassembling of the legis- 
lative bodies upon which their continued endowment depends, 
and by whose country members their utilit\- is constantly called 
♦For a more extended exemplification and discussion of the nature and 
utility of .such work, .see tlie •Kepoit on Cotton I'loduction in the I'nited 
States" Vols. .'» and »> of the Ifriiortu of llic Vitli Cviixiiy : al.so Am. ./our. Sci., 
Dec. ISTl'. p. »;!4 : lhi<l.. .Sept.. p. IS:',. 
