Pnvsu-Ai- Composition' ok C'apk Colon v Soii>. 10:T 



origin, whereas tliuse beinw tliat size are rixei-lxiriie sands, silts and 

 clays. No. 2, as the table of results shows, becomes less sandy as one 

 penetrates deeper, but Nos. 3 and 4 are sandier lower down tlian at 

 the surface. 



As representing some of the choicest lands in those districts 

 which have been termed the Granary of the Colony, two Koeberg 

 soils, numbered 33 and 34 in the accompanying t<iibles, were chosen for 

 mechanical analysis. Kach of these two soils was sampled in twelve- 

 inch \eitical sections, to a depth of 3 ft., and from the samples sf) 

 collected the foregoing results (p. 102) were obtained by mechanical 

 analysis. 



Tliese two samples were taken from hillsides on the faim Hooge 

 Kraal, No. 33 being found by experience to be the more productive of 

 the two. Kraal bosch — considered locally to be a sign of richness of 

 soil — grows on the area represented by No. 33, which is thought to be 

 the best soil on the farm. It is a looser soil than No. 34, the latter 

 being more stony and apt to cake when the ground becomes hard and 

 dry ; No. 34 is, however, more typical of the average Koeberg soil. 



Tlie figures of the preceding table are summarised below : — 



It will be found of interest to compare the.se results with the 

 figures quoted from Snyder as the most satisfactory for wheat produc- 

 tion. As before observed, it does not by any means follow that the 

 optima of mechanical composition for wheat soils in the United States 

 of America are also the optima in the Cape Colony ; in fact, it would 

 be strange if such were tlie case, in ^iev.- of the widely differing 

 climatic conditions. 



Regarding the irrigation schemes which must continue to bulk 

 largely in the country's future development, not only does the distribu- 

 tion of alkali in the soil need investigation, but equally so the physical 

 condition of the soil. Tlie important problems of differentiating soil 

 types, and of classifying the colony's soils from a laboratory standpoint 

 — an investigation which has proved so useful in America — still le- 

 mains to be grappled, and it is the writer's increasing view tliat, just 

 at this point, a thorough study and, if possible, a mapping out of the 

 mechanical condition of the soil in various areas should go conjointly 



