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Soil Surveys

Historical Soil Survey Publications

How to Use a Soil Survey - basic information on utilizing a soil survey.

Listing of Soil Surveys by State - current and out-of-print soil surveys and contact information for requesting a paper or CD copy.


Laboratory Data and Research

Global Climate Change

National Cooperative Soil Survey Soil Characterization Data - Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory site specific data with search routines.

Rapid Carbon Assessment - A project that collected soil carbon data from more than 6,000 sites across the conterminous U.S.

Research and Research-Related Activities

Soil Geochemistry Spatial Database - access to selected data.


Soil Geospatial Data

Soil Geography small scale digital soil databases for general soil maps (STATSGO), major land resource areas (MLRA), common resource areas (CRA), and other geospatial data layers (gateway).


Other Soil Information

eFOTG- the NRCS electronic Field Office Technical Guide.


History of Soil Survey

Guy’s War - A website dedicated to Guy D. Smith (former director of the Soil Conservation Service).

Guy Smith Award - Information about the award presented by the International Union of Soil Sciences.

These documents require Acrobat Reader.

Dr. Richard Arnold’s collection of papers (PDF; 841 KB) - Dr. Arnold was the Director of the Soil Science Division from 1980 to 1996.

USDA-SCS Soils Staffs (PDF; 46.1 MB) - Staffing directories from 1953 to 2000.

Soil Science Institute (PDF; 1.88 MB) - A brief history of the training sessions held from 1960 to present.

Soil Survey Centennial Celebration (1899-1999)

PDF files require Acrobat Reader and PPT files require Microsoft Powerpoint.

Celebrating 100 Years -- Photos from the Past (PDF; 419 KB)

Centennial Highlights -- Papers from the 1998 SWCS Annual Conference (PDF; 527 KB)

Centennial of the Soil Survey Program (PPT; 313 KB)

History of Soil Survey (PPT; 15 MB)


Million-Acre Mappers

A list of soil scientists who have mapped one million acres in their careers.