4 IO SOILS. 



It is quite obvious that only leaching-down and concentration 

 of the feeble resources of such material in the valleys can pro- 

 duce soils worthy of permanent cultivation. 



One point, however, is strikingly illustrated in several of 

 the analyses given in the subjoined table. We find in the 

 original quite a number of cases in which the field notes report 

 considerable fertility, while the chemists' judgment is very 

 unfavorable. Thus we find recorded for the soil No. 267, 

 taken near the village of Anjozorabe, in the Maintirano region, 

 " luxuriant vegetation and remarkable crops," with such mi- 

 nute proportions of potash, lime and phosphoric acid that the 

 authors are compelled to say that the land offers " no cultural 

 resources." The same occurs in the cases of soils Nos. 370, 

 261, and several others having either " good crops " or " abun- 

 dant natural vegetation." Unless we assume that in these 

 cases the samples were not properly taken, we are obliged to 

 conclude that under the local climatic conditions, such minute 

 amounts of plant-food are developed with sufficient rapidity to 

 supply good growth. This would be quite parallel to the case 

 of the tea soils of Assam, whose production lasted 30 years 

 before showing exhaustion, on plant-food percentages only 

 slightly greater than those here noted, and determined by a 

 much more incisive method. 



It is thus quite obvious that a different standard of inter- 

 pretation must be applied to tropical soils as compared with 

 either the temperate humid, or the arid regions ; and that uni- 

 form methods of analysis are needed to evolve a definite rule 

 from the present uncertainties. 



THE SOILS OF INDIA. 



The soils of India have been investigated to some extent by 

 the geological survey of India ; by Voelcker, who went there 

 on a special mission to investigate agricultural conditions; 

 and since, more especially by Leather, Bamber and Mann ; and 

 by Moreland. Leather's account is the most complete on the 

 general subject and can best serve as the basis for a review of 

 the entire peninsula. 1 



According to Dr. Leather, " the four main types of soils to 



1 On the Composition of Indian Soils. Agr. Ledger, 1898, No. 2. 



