The Field Man's Problems in the Tennessee Valley Soil Survey

The "field man" as considered here Is one engaged In soil survey field work. I think of field work as consisting of, first, going into the field and collecting such soil data as can be collected only in the outdoors and, second, recording and arranging this data in convenient order for use. This consists largely of the preparation of manuscript, soil maps, and records. Although this discussion is concerned with the field man's problems in the Tennessee Valley area only, it may be that most of it will apply also to other soil survey projects, more particularly to those with similar objectives and procedures. It is obvious, of course, that the field man's problems vary not only among soil regions but also among physiographic and other subdivisions of the same region. It is also true that the duties—and, therefore, the problems—of all field men are not the same even in a given area. For instance, the problems of the chief of a project party vary in detail from those of his assistants or from those of his supervisor, and so on farther up or down the scale of the personnel. Many of the problems confronting the Tennessee Valley soil surveyor are more or less common to most undertakings. It is apparent that a discussion of these various phases and details of the field man's problems is not appropriate to the occasion. Only .brief consideration of the more significant problems will be given, and it will be necessary to treat these in blanket fashion, assuming a general average character of landscape throughout the Valley area, striking a level for the personnel, and omitting problems that are less peculiar to the soil survey. It is difficult for a soil surveyor to part ways with classification. So, for the same reason that all classifications are made—to facilitate the dealing with a group of objects—let's attempt a kind of classification of the field man's problems in the Tennessee Valley area. I often think of our problems in groups or classes as follows: (1) Those of acquiring the proper concept of the objective and an understanding of the necessary scheme and procedure to attain it, (g.) those of the preparation of simple and descriptive legends for the individual county projects, (3} those of mapping, (4) those of collecting field data, (5) those of interpretation and application of data as expressed in the report manuscript, and (€>) those of acquiring the proper professional outlook. No attempt will be made to so much as mention all the problems of the field man. If merely the interest of the field men here can be aroused to the extent that we will all speak up in the interest of our own problems, the result of the occasion will be replete.