33 



These soils average in composition as follows : 

 Chemical composition. 



Physical composition. 



Although not of a high degree of fertility, they are considerably 

 better than those of Silay, especially as regards potash, and they may 

 be classed as thoroughly dependable sugar soils where plant cane alone 

 is to be grown. There is apparently not a sufficient excess of readily 

 assimilable plant food present in them to render ratooning very profit- 

 able, although this is done to a very limited extent, especially in the 

 newer land^. The Bago soils carry less lime than those of any other 

 part of Negros, and this fact, in the clay soils at least, probably ac- 

 counts for the increased difficulty experienced in cultivating them, as 

 they have a tendency when wet to become very sticky and hard to 

 plow ; and if plowed while wet they climip together into compact masses 

 which, once diy, are veiy difficult to break up. As in other districts, 

 analytical differences between so-called good and poor soils are com- 

 paratively slight. However, once having established a normal type of 

 soil for a certain district, the relative value of any other soil from the 

 same district may be predicted with some degree of accuracy, provided 

 its physical conditions are at the same time laiown. 



For example, numbers 14 and 15, a "good" and a '"bad"' soil from the same 

 hacienda, are very much alike chemically, number 14 being very slightly superior 

 in percentage of potash, lime, and phosphoric acid. The chief difference lies in the 

 fact that the subsoil of number 15, fairly close to tlie surface, is made up of very 

 stiff clay, with only a little coarse sand in streaks, which does not afford sufficient 

 drainage, while that of number 14 begins well below the plow line, and is rather 

 more open in texture. 



Chemical analysis shows to better advantage in the case of numbers 19 and 20, 

 samples taken from the best and from the worst field in the same plantation, 

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