Soil surveys provide very specific information on the extent and distribution of various soil types within the area, as well as information on slope, drainage, climate, wildlife habitat, and possibilities for land use. Soil surveys are used by farmers, real estate agents, land use planners, engineers and others who desire information about the soil resource. The published USDA soil surveys include aerial photos of the county with soil types indicated by outlines.
Printed, mostly county-based soil survey reports were the main source of soils information from 1899 to 2005. USDA phased out the printing of reports after making Web Soil Survey the official source for information in 2005. Historical soil surveys have been scanned, converted to PDF files, and can be accessed via the NRCS Soil Surveys by State webpage. Texas Soil Surveys are available through the University of North Texas Portal to Texas History.
Soil Facts from the USDA definitions of soil and soil survey, information on careers, some basics on soil formation and classification, and a soil science glossary.
The Soil Survey Manual, USDA Handbook No. 18, provides the major principles and practices needed for making and using soil surveys and for assembling and using related data. The Manual serves as a guiding document for activities of the National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS). Previously published in 1937, 1951, and 1993, the Soil Survey Manual is one of the defining documents for soil survey in the world.
The UNT Libraries' Government Documents Department has an extensive collection of soil surveys from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Most of these cover a single county; there is not yet a soil survey for every county in the United States, but they do cover a large portion of the United States.
Most of UNT's soil surveys can be checked out of the library. A few very old or very popular ones have been put on reserve.
To identify Texas soil surveys and their locations in the UNT Government Documents Department, enter a keyword search in the format "[county name] texas soil survey" (without quotation marks) in the UNT Library Catalog.
For example:
denton texas soil survey
Some soil survey data is available online from the NRCS Soil Web site.
