TWEXTV-FIVE YEARS OF CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION. Ill 



X'lei. and mealies and mealie cobs, the latter being compared 

 with ordinary dried fodder*. Investigations of a similar nature 

 were made during 1908 in regard to various species of prickly 

 pear, and the fodder plants Fhalaris commutata, Festuca elatior 

 and Paspaluin dilatatuin, and during 1909 with respect to the 

 Kafir melon { iiioiiketaaii). Another investigation has been 

 directed towards ascertaining the sugar content that can be 

 acquired 'by beet cultivated in various parts of the country, 

 and at various stages of growth. 



Mineral Investigations. 



The pecuniary worth of the chemical investigations con- 

 ducted in the Cape laboratories is not always visible to the by- 

 stander — certainly not in the way wherein they proved them- 

 selves valuable in connection with the Thebus irrigation project 

 alluded to on an earlier page : nor in the manner in which such an 

 investigation seven years ago saved the Corporation of the City of 

 Cape Town from paying f 100,000 for the right of extracting 

 a m3-thical asphalt from the gravel of Table Mountain in order 

 to pave the city's streets ; nor even in the way in which, still 

 more recently, many persons were restrained from speculation 

 while many thousands of pounds were lost by others who, not- 

 withstanding the Government Analysts' reports of a contrary 

 tendency, persisted in the belief that a fabulous wealth of plati- 

 num was concealed under the quartzites of the Witteberg Range. 

 As a rule the value of scientific investigation is slow in proving 

 itself: the instances just quoted are exceptions. 



One series of investigations connected with the mineral 

 wealth of the country deserves quoting here. I refer to the 

 seven or eight dozen analyses that were made of salt taken from 

 the salt-pans that are found in various parts of the Cape Pro- 

 vince and Orange Free State. The results obtained were tabu- 

 lated and commented on in a short paper published in the Cape 

 Agricultural Journal, t and, while the purity of the salt produced 

 was found to be equal to anything imported from oversea, on 

 the one hand 28,000,000 pounds by weight of table salt were 

 being so imported annually, and on the other £15,000 worth of 

 salt was being prepared locally in one year, the output of a 

 working capital of only £57,000. ^ 



Another subject on which there has been a certain amount 

 of investigation is that of materials for pottery and earthenware. 

 Clays from Kingwilliamstown, comparing well with Stourbridge 

 fireclay, have been analysed, as well as ironstones resembling 

 Torbay paints, from the same locality. At East London, Molteno 

 and Cyphergat materials capable of producing good fireclays 

 have been found, while kaolins or China clays from George and 

 Oatlands have also been analysed. 



A fairly exhaustive series of analyses of coal samples fro:a 

 almost every possible locality in South .\frica has been carried 



* C-G-H. Agricultural JournaL July. 1908 

 t November. igo8. 





