County soil surveys are produced by the Natural Resources Conservation Service,
formerly the Soil Conservation Service of the US Dept. of Agriculture. Single
copies of county soil surveys are generally available free of
charge from the county offices. To locate the local offices, telephone book
blue pages generally list them under Federal - US Dept. of Agriculture,
Natural Resources. Another source of local soils information is the County Agent
or Agricultural Extension Service, usually located in the county seat.
Note that some counties have never been surveyed, or have not been surveyed
since the early 1900's. The reasons for this may include urbanization and / or
difficulties in obtaining access permissions. Some local offices may have
revisions in preparation or completed and awaiting approval and budgeting
for printing, which is why it may be useful to contact the agencies directly.
A further note is that soil surveys since the early 1950's are produced on
an air-photo base. Earlier series of soil surveys do not include the
air photography base, and thus may be more difficult to interpret.
The PCL collection has a complete set of US soil surveys at the same call number; the Walter Geology Library has only Texas soil surveys. The Texas State Library at 12th and Brazos also maintiains a Federal Document Depository, and may have relevant soil surveys.
Travis County NRCS Office: 1106 Clayton Lane 78723 ph. 459-1623
A list of published soil surveys, and their locations in the UT Austin the University of Texas Libraries, can be found at: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/soil_surveys.html. There is also a version of the soil survey publication list which has no information about UT Austin holdings at the following URL: http://soils.usda.gov/survey/printed_surveys/. The Texas Soil Surveys that are digitized can be found at http://soils.usda.gov/survey/online_surveys/texas/
The University of North Texas has digitized the Texas Soil Surveys from prior to 1950. They can be found at this site: http://texashistory.unt.edu/browse/collection/TXSS/.
Some useful soils reference books:
Keys to Soil Taxonomy 6th ed. 1994
S 592.16 U65 1994 Geology Library REFERENCE
Methods of Soil Analysis v.1-2. 2nd ed. 1982
(Agronomy v.9, American Society of Agronomy).
S 593 M4453 1982 pt1, pt.2 Geology Library REFERENCE
Methods of Soil Analysis v.3. Chemical Analysis 1995
(SSSA Book Series no.5).
S 593 M4453 1995 Geology Library REFERENCE
Soil Survey Laboratory Data and Descriptions for Some Soils of Texas
(Soil Survey Investigations Report No.30)
S 599 T4 U584 1976 REFERENCE
Soil Taxonomy: a Basic System of Soil Classification. 1975
(Agriculture Handbook #436, USDA,SCS).
S 590 U468 1975 Geology Library REFERENCE
Keys to Soil Taxonomy 8th ed. 1998 can be accessed online.
U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service official soil series descriptions are maintained online at the Unites States Department of Agriculture (USDA) web page.
All modern soil surveys in the Geology Library can be found in the catalog by looking for soil survey (county) under Title Keyword search.
The call number for these begins S 599 T4.
County (or Place) Year
|
Anderson 1975 |
Floyd 1978 |
Montague 1978 |
The following soil surveys are in the PCL Map Room, located in PCL 1.306. They are located in a file cabinet in the PCL map room. They can be located in the catalog at call number S 591 A22 Texas followed by the county name. They are old, many are obsolete, and all are fragile. Please use them only if more up-to-date soil surveys are not available.
Place Year
|
Anderson 1905 |
Freestone 1918 |
Reeves 1926 |
Additional miscellaneous Texas soil publications:
Texas Coastal Basins, Appendix A--Soils of the Texas Coastal Basins
S 599 T4 U5 1972 GEOL
Soil Characteristics of Two Locations in Swisher and Deaf Smith Counties, Palo Duro Basin
S 599 T4 S644 1984 GEOL
Mineralogy and Chemistry of High Plains Playa Lake Soils and Sediments
S 599 T4 M563 GEOL
Soil Handbook for Soil Survey of the City of San Marcos, Texas
S 599 T4 A5581 1972 GEOL
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