128 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



The Mineral Resources Department of the Imperial Institute is well 

 equipped for the chemical and mineralogical examination of soils 

 and a large amount of work is done for the African colonies. The 

 Institute works in close co-operation with the Imperial Bureau 

 of Soil Science, from which soil samples from colonial sources are 

 forwarded for examination. 



The new Soil Laboratory at Oxford is likely to fulfil an important 

 function as a centre for soil studies as a pure, as opposed to an 

 applied, science. 



The Macaulay Institute for soil research at Aberdeen has paid 

 special attention to methods of soil survey, and is responsible for 

 all survey work in Scotland. This institute offers facilities for the 

 training of workers in this subject. 



Conferences of soil scientists^ held from time to time, serve very 

 important functions. At the third international congress of soil 

 science, held at Oxford in 1935, it was agreed to prepare a soil 

 map of British Africa on the scale of 1 15,000,000, the first draft to 

 be ready by 1940, the date of the next international congress. 

 Mr. C. G. T. Morison agreed to act as general editor. For the 

 foreign countries also it is hoped to publish similar maps, and M. 

 Agafanoff (Paris) is the editor. This will make a valuable com- 

 panion to the international geological map on the same scale men- 

 tioned in Chapter III, p. 71. 



Among publications of a general nature the book by H. L. 

 Shantz and G. F. Marbut (1923) on the vegetation and soils of 

 Africa has been helpful as a basis for soil research, if only in pro- 

 viding something for subsequent workers to criticize. It aims at a 

 general account of the whole continent, keeping constantly in 

 mind the soil-vegetation unit rather than either soil or vegetation 

 alone. P. Vageler (1933) has contributed an important book, 

 recently translated into English, on tropical soils, partly based on 

 work in German East Africa before the war. Another recent book 

 of general use, though not written especially with regard to Africa, 

 is on the biological processes in tropical soils by S. Gorbet (1935). 

 The few soil scientists at work in the continent have contributed 

 results of value, some of which are referred to below. 



In the Union of South Africa the Division of Chemical Services of 

 the Department of Agriculture and Forestry at Pretoria, under 



