104 Report 8.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



with, if not indeed iictually precede, inquiry into the quantities of pJant 

 food present. Such a scheme, the writer trusts, will ere Ion*; be put 

 into practical operation. Barrenness may frequently be caused by 

 factors other than the lack of plant food in the soil, and in many cases 

 where there is no question of barrenness at all, the difference of texture 

 in soils suited, saj^, to the cultivation of potatoes, and soils of a more 

 claj'ey nature, has exercised a controlling influence upon the class of 

 farming to be practised ; such difif'erences of texture in the soil profile 

 may be actuall}^ mapped out, and would affoixl a means of incalculable 

 benefit.* Tt has, for instance, been seen that to a certain extent 

 geological influences perform an important part in this connection, and 

 placing this in conjunction with what has been referred .to abo\e re- 

 garding the mapping out of soil types, it becomes evident that an 

 interesting and most valuable phase of the subject invites closer study. 

 Hitherto the study of the soil's physical condition in this country has 

 extended little beyond the mechanical analysis of more or less typical 

 soils of three broad classes, namely, the grain soils of the south-western 

 districts, the fruit and general farm soils of the Worcester-Robertson 

 area, and the deposited silts of the Orange River, all of which have 

 been dealt with — although somewhat superficially — in this paper, and 

 it is to be hoped that a far wider application of this branch of investi- 

 gation will sjDeedily be embarked upon. 



* In the senior analyst's annual report for Parliament, just issued from 

 the press, the writer has included such a map of the (ioxerinnent experiment 

 station at Robertson. 



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 I 



