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The Soil Survey Manual provides in a single volume the major principles and practices needed for making and using soil surveys and for assembling and using data related to them. The Manual is intended primarily for use by soil scientists engaged in the classification and mapping of soils and in the interpretation of soil surveys. Although the Manual is oriented to the needs of those actively engaged in preparing soil surveys for publication, workers and students who have limited soils experience or are less familiar with the soil survey process also will be able to use the information. The Manual focuses on the major concerns of the members of the National Cooperative Soil Survey, a cooperative undertaking of the United States Department of Agriculture and an agency of each of the States: commonly, the State agricultural experiment station of a State’s land-grant university. Other agencies—local, State, or Federal—cooperate under special agreements. The original Federal authority for the soil survey of the United States is contained in the record of the 53rd Congress, chapter 169, Agricultural Appropriations Act of 1896. The authority was elaborated in Public Law 74-46, The Soil Conservation Act of April 27, 1936, and again in Public Law 89-560, Soil Surveys for Resource Planning and Development, September 7, 1966. The Manual is the primary reference on principles and technical detail for local, State, and Federal contributions to soil surveys authorized under these acts. The term “the Soil Survey” is used in the Manual to refer to the National Cooperative Soil Survey.