After 114 years, Mississippi State University and other agencies have completed an acre-by-acre map of Mississippi's soils.

It's part of a national soil survey. Billy Kingery of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station says the survey also indicates the best ways for people in all fields to use and deal with the different soils. He says the survey can help farmers, developers, road-builders and people dealing with wastewater treatment, and others.

On May 8, partners from the experiment station, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and other natural resources agencies met in Jackson to celebrate completion of the state project, which mapped more than 30 million acres.

David Pettry, retired MAFES soil scientist, says there are 12 kinds of soil types in the world, and Mississippi has eight of them.