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from its being more clayey. The decomposed calca- 

 reous strata about Suva makes a capital soil when 

 mixed with vegetable matter, and it is surprising to 

 see how trees, reeds, grass, &c, grow on even a few 

 inches of it. To some light porous soils an applica- 

 tion of it would act as guano or marl. It retains 

 moisture well. The rock when broken up and ex- 

 posed to the air, crumbles to powder in a short time ; 

 and, in this condition it is capable of producing all 

 kinds of crops. In some localities, of small extent, 

 in both the large islands, particularly in the centre of 

 Vanua Levu, the soil is poor. In these places it is 

 red or white earth or clay, destitute of vegetable 

 matter at a few inches below the surface ; but where 

 the surface soil has not been destroyed, a dense 

 growth of trees, bushes, canes, grass, &c. is produced 

 on it. In all the other parts of the group the soil is 

 a mixture of the three first-mentioned kinds, with a 

 large quantity of vegetable matter added. Its tex- 

 ture is loamy, light, and friable. It is not over tena- 

 cious of moisture, and water passes readily through 

 it. Unless in the case of the lowest lying lands the 

 sub-soil is well drained. The flats or "bottom land " 

 may be said to be unequalled in fertility. On these 

 lands, crops of sugar cane, cotton, maize, tobacco, &c, 

 have been grown annually for a number of years with- 

 out manure, and apparently without diminishing the 

 fertility of the soil. What, in Fiji, is generally termed 

 poor land, is only so by the dryness of the locality; 

 and there is not half an acre of land in one place in 

 Fiji so poor as to be unproductive of some kind of 

 useful crop; neither is I here any locality in it so dry 

 that grass will not grow for at least nine months of 

 the year on an average of years. 



