Incidence of bloating among approximately 600 clay samples from East Texas, ranging in age from Gulfian (Late Cretaceous) to Recent, correlates principally with clay mineralogy-and pH--together an indication of bulk composition--and to a lesser extent with texture, loss on ignition, and content of nonclay refractory minerals. Clay-mineral and pH data permit prediction of bloating with an accuracy of about 80 percent.

Minerals play a vital role in the economy of an industrial State. In Texas, where annual production of minerals currently amounts to more than $4. 5 billion--twice the value of agricultural products, equal the value of manufactured products, and equal to half the value of all retail trade--mineral production is the principal part of the State's economic foundation. Analyses of past production trends and economic factors allow predictions of future trends in this vital and important segment of the Texas economy.

When a reference is made to the mineral resources of Texas, most people think of oil and gas, and some few also of sulfur. And, of course, it is true that of the whopping $4.4 billion dollars’ worth of minerals produced in Texas in 1963, 92% was oil, gas, and natural gas liquids. In 1963, for the 29th year, Texas led the Nation as a producer of minerals. Value of mineral products was twice the value of agricultural products, equal to the value of manufactured products, and equal to about one-half the value of all retail trade.

Since the days of R. T. Hill (1901) two Upper Cretaceous lithic units have been used as formations but have remained unnamed. These two units have usually been called the "Lower Taylor Marl” and the “Upper Taylor Marl.” If Taylor is used as a group, both of these formations belong in the Taylor Group.

This circular presents the history of "geological survey" in Texas from its beginning in 1858, through its intermittent early history, to [1965]. It also shows that any organization which carried the name "survey" was very short-lived in Texas. Whether this is because of early legislators’ convictions that a survey was something that was organized to do a specific job and then terminated, or whether there were deeper causes for the ephemeral nature of the early surveys is a matter for more thorough historical research and analysis.