THE FUTURE OF THE SOIL SURVEY IN OUR NATIONALAGRICULTURAL POLICY

By

Milton WhitneyChief, Bureau of Soils.

The ancients, so far as history and tradition are available to us, werecurious as to what made plants grow and as to why crops grew differently indifferent localities and on different soil types. In the earliest stages ofthe life of mart on the earth when they depended upon the wild things of naturethey were keen for a knowledge of where their necessities could be obtained.In the early nomadic life of the people it was essential for them to knowwhere the best natural food for their flocks and herds could be obtained.Such people needed only general information.

As the nomadic life gave place to the sedentary life and the growingof crops, they needed more particular information because to produce cropsthey had to settle on a definite piece of land. The selection of the landwhere they should settle became of supreme importance. When a country wassparsely settled knowledge of the soil type was relatively unimportantbecause of the wealth of land available so that they were able to supportthemselves in a way on the product of their labors. As the country becamemore densely settled more and more organization had to be introduced witha consequent increase in taxes and in public improvements, competition becamegreater, and more intensive effort became necessary.

According to the early Chinese records1, which are apparently authen-tic, in the Yao dynasty from 2357 to 2261 B.C. certain parts of that countrywere then so thickly settled that the emperor directed that there be madewhat was probably the first soil survey and there were established ninedifferent types of soil, There were the yellow and mellow soils of YungChow (Shensi and Kansu) which were put into the first class and the red,clayey rich soils of Su Chow (Shantung, Kiangsu and Anhwei) which were putinto the second class. The third class comprised the whitish and richsalty soils of Tsing Chow (Shantung) while in the fourth class were placedthe mellow, rich, dark and thin soils of Yu Chow (Honan). In the fifthclass were the whitish and mellow soils of Ki Chow (Chili and Shanse), inthe sixth class the blackish and rich soils of Yen Chow (Ghili and Shantung)and in the seventh class the greenish and light soils of Liang Chow(Szechuen and Shensi), The miry soils of King Chow (Hunen and Hupeh) werein the eighth class and the miry soils of Yang Chow (Kiangsu) were in the

— — — — — — . — . . — _ - — . - _ — . — _ _ _ . . _ _ _ _ — _ _ _ _ _ _ „ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . . _ . _ _ _ _ _ . - _ _ _ , . _ _ , . . . _ — _ _ _ _ . . — — — — — — — — — - _ .1. "Economic History of China With Special Reference to Agriculture" by

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, published as studies in History, Economics andPublic Law, edited by the Faculty of Political Science of ColumbiaUniversity, Vol. XCIX, No. 1, whole number 225.

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ninth class. On this classification were established the size of the hold-ings of each farmer, the amount of the taxes payable to the state and thesystem of education regarding agricultural methods and procedure.

The early Greek and Roman philosophers whose writings have come downto us show a very intimate knowledge of the relation of soil types to crops,especially the writings of Cato, Columella and Pliny. They dwell upon theimportance of selecting the right kind of soil for a definite crop orsystem of crop rotations and warn against the use of soil types for cropsand industries to which they are not adapted. They ascribe many of thefailures of agriculture in their times to a lack of appreciation of theadaptation of crops to soils.

The history of agriculture in the north of Europe from the latterpart of medieval times to the present shows a gradual application of theadaptation of crops to types of soils as we see exemplified in the agri-cultural policy of Germany up to the time of the recent war. Practicallythey had been working out for a thousand years an agricultural policywhich recognized as separate units their moor soils, their sandy soils,their clayey soils, the soils adapted to sugar beets, to potatoes, to thedairy industry, to grain farming, to wine production, and a multitude ofother crops and of other industries.

The great economic crisis in England at the close of the baronialperiod when the open field system was displaced by the inclosure systemmade possible individual competition and the adoption of the principle ofthe adaptation of soils to crops and all that has since developed in theperfection of methods through individual effort.

It must be remembered that the art of surveying and map constructionhas only been developed in any adequate way within recent years and thatstatistical work as applied to crop production is a matter of recent times,With the perfection of maps, the development of statistical science, withthe accumulation of the Knowledge of the constitution and properties ofsoils to guide it remained for the early part of the twentieth century tobegin the actual differentiation or classification of soils portrayed onmaps to record those fundamental facts which have always been, in theory atleast, the fundamental basis for an agricultural program for a farm,a county, a state, or a nation. The soil map is a visualization of theaspirations and desires of mankind throughout the ages. The soil surveytherefore is putting such data, under scientific methods of classification,on maps for the benefit of the present and of future generations uponwhich to build a National Agricultural Program.

Other speakers at this meeting will tell you of the present use towhich the soil maps are put--the information they give to the present ownersof the land in regard to soil conditions on their pwn and on their neighbors'farms so that they may correlate the successes and failures with the experi-ences of others who occupy the same types of soil. They will tell you of theuse of the soil map to the prospective settler who elects to move from onepart of the country to another, the use of these maps by the experimentstations and by all workers in agricultural lines of research, of the use of

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these maps by bankers and investment companies, and by real estate agents.They will tell you of the stabilization of land prices, and of systems oftaxation.

I have elected to give you this brief historical review because I thinkit cannot help but impress you and impress others with the feelings whichI sincerely hold that as time goes on, as our population increases, as thestruggle for existence in this and in other countries may become more acute,the soil survey will be more and more appreciated and more and more essentialto the organization and upbuilding of the highest possible development ofagriculture.

What the Japanese have done in their six thousand years of historicaloccupation in the adaptation of their soils to crops throughout their pro-vinces in the knowledge and experience that has been handed down from fatherto son in the regulation and control of their lands, what the Germans havedone in the past thousand years through experience and through force ofnecessity in the regulation of their crop adaptations to soil types, we ofthe twentieth century should do more intelligently and more quickly with theknowledge afforded by the soil survey and the studies that are being made ofour soil types.

The English have increased their yield of wheat during the past threehundred years at the rate of about eight bushels per acre per one hundredyears. During the past forty years the United States has increased itsyield of wheat at a rate of about twelve bushels per acre per one hundredyears but at this rate we are about one hundred years behind the presentacreage-yield development in England.

With the knowledge presented by our soil surveys and the proper utiliza-tion of our soil types in their adaptation and treatment we should be ablethrough force of intellect and knowledge to establish and maintain a morerapid increment than has been accomplished in the north of Europe by necessi-ty and through the acquisition of knowledge of their soils through innumer-able failures and a few accidental successes.

The agricultural industry in the United States is now and has been formany years rapidly changing. It is not stable but is developing rapidly andin the course of the next fifty years will probably be entirely reorganized.In this reorganization the soil survey will unquestionably play an exceeding-ly important part. With 87½ per cent of the acreage in crops at the presenttime devoted to five crops, cotton, corn, wheat, oats and hay, and with themore or less complete segregation of the commercial production of thesestaples to different sections of the country we do not have and cannot havea national rotation policy which is one of the recognized essentials in theincreasing of productivity. In this respect we are not far removed from themedieval system prevailing in Europe when the open field system was in use.A full knowledge of the adaptations of our soils should make possible a typeor types of agriculture in which rational crop rotation can be maintained.

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