Download or read book Soil Survey Manual (U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook No. 18) written by U.S. Department of Agriculture and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019-04-06 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 term ?soil survey? is used here to encompass the process of mapping, describing, classifying, and interpreting natural three-dimensional bodies of soil on the landscape. This work is performed by the National Cooperative Soil Survey in the United States and by other similar organizations worldwide. The Manual provides guidance, methodology, and terminology for conducting a soil survey but does not necessarily convey policies and protocols required to administer soil survey operations. The soil bodies contain a sequence of identifiable horizons and layers that occur in repeating patterns in the landscape as a result of the factors of soil formation as described by Dokuchaev (1883) and Jenny (1941).