The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-03
OUR BIG SOIL SURVEY
How Uncle Sam Is Mapping the
Country for the Investor and
Farmer
By FRANK G. CARPENTER,

ming Of an enormous wealth which
further knowledge will bring.
The cotton crop brought in an ag
gregate of something like $900,00O.O0O
and that Notwithstanding the weevil.
which had we not learned more about
the soil since its coming. would have
wiped more than half Of our cotton
plantations from the face Of the
earth And then there is the hay
crop amounting to 6O.000000 tons and
worth more than 100000, 900: the
wheat crop which was almost as val
ua bic. and our oats which exceeded
one billion bushels, to say nothing OF
potatoes, sugar, tobacco and barley.
each Of which ran high into the mil
lions. All this comes from the soil
and the product depends on just what
the soil is The agricultural experts
say that in nine cases out Of ten every
crop can be largely increased, proVid
ed the right crop is chosen for the
right place and the cultivation proper
ly done. 1t is to show just what your
sell is and how YOU should treat it to
make it do best that Uncle Sam IS
working in this great soil survey.
Testing the United States With Au-
gurS.
But what mighty job it is. Think
of going over tae United States with
eter and three feet in length. and
boring down into every ten-acre field
to find Just what kind Of soil it con-
tains. That is what Uncle Sam is do
ing. He has already tested the most
of the land Of the great plains, and
has actually made soil maps and work
ing plans for a territory larger than
France, Germany or the Spanish pc
ninsula He has mapped and anal
wed the soils of considers bly, more
than one hundred million acres in the
eastern part Of this country, having
completed the work over enough land
to make four States as big as Illinois,
or five the size Of Ohio or Kentucky.
This testing has been done by coun-
distances apart. so that a general
knowledge of the soils lying between
is already known. 1t shows just
what the soils are, and to what
crops they are adapted and how they
may be improved. 1t has been SO
done that we now have fair knoWl-
edge Of the soils east of the great
plains, although the practical Workias,
plans and maps have to be made for
each county, and this work will go on
for decades to come.
An army of experts is now at work
in the dry plains region, mapping the
country from North Dakota to Texas.
Other experts are testing the places IN
the Rocky Mountain basin where the
reclamation plants are being created.
and considerable surveying has oeen
done in California and in other parts
of the Pacific slope, as we'll as in the
Gulf States and the Mississippi Val
lev The work has been such that we
have now a general outline OF our
soil territories as we'll as accurate
knowledge Of about per cent OF the
whole. The total land Of the Unite1
States proper aggregates about 1,9oo
million acres, and, as [ have said, OF
more than 100, 100000 acres We nave
already completed surveys The
work began about eleven years ago.
1t is carried on by one of the chief
bureaus of the Agricultural Depart
ment, whose scientific laboratories
and other arrangement are among
the finest Of the Government. In au-
dition to the actual exhaustive sur
yeys PROSPECTING surveys have been
carried on in many sections, and there
are on file requests Tor 800 or more
additional surveys covering about
one-fifth of our country.
What Soil Is
If makes ones head buzz when he
thinks OF these big scientific features
of Uncle Sans work. They are hard
to describe in popular language, ana
the scientists use terms which wOuld q
BRIGHTEN the reader. / have been talk
ing with many of the soil experts
and among others with DR. Milton
whitney. who has been a t the head OIL
the bureau since its beginning ana
who knows more about SOILS. pefhi1'S'
than any other man in the country.