19 



FIELD OPERATIONS. 



Professor Whitney, Chief of the Division of Soils in the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, opened his report on the field operations of 

 his Division during 1899 with these words : 



" During the season of 1899 three well-organised parties were in the field for from six 

 to eight months, each equipped according to the most modern methods for surveying 

 investigations and mapping the soils of several important agricultural districts." 



That division was established in 1894, with a personnel of 10 persons; 

 by the end of 1904 the number had increased to 127. Up to the middle 

 of 1900 about 3,500 square miles of country had been mapped out in con- 

 nection with the soil survey; within the succeeding four and a half years 

 85,500 square miles had been mapped, a fact which shows the rapid in- 

 crease in the work of an institution that commenced operations a year 

 after our own soil investigations had been started. 



At no time have we, in this Colony, been able to spare more than 

 one solitary unassisted individual for both field operations and laboratory 

 work in connection with our soil investigations, so that, while the collec- 

 tion of samples was going on the operations in the laboratory had to 

 cease, and vice versa. This is a circumstance that must be continuously 

 borne in mind to account for the comparative paucity of result hitherto 

 obtained, 



The equipment of the soil collector has, as a rule, been little else 

 than a stock of canvas bags, a spade, a supply of census maps of each dis- 

 trict traversed, a small pocket compass, and a trocheameter. By the aid 

 of these implements samples have been taken from some 27,000 square 

 miles of country. 



The soils whose analyses are tabulated in the following pages fall into 

 three classes according to the circumstances of their collection: 



(1) First of all must be mentioned the specimens taken in pursuance 

 of the survey scheme to which reference has already been made. In each 

 case these samples were collected by one of the analysts attached to the 

 Government Analytical Laboratory, who had been specially detailed for 

 the work. The following is a list of the samples so taken from each, of 

 the Divisions of the Colony visited for the purpose : 



niTTi-o; rt n No. of samples Area of Division, 



collected. in square miles. 



Cape 25 663 



Malmesbury 54 2,329 



Caledon 30 1,772 



Bredasdorp 21 1,577 



Swellendam 37 2,362 



Robertson 27 1,526 



Riversdale 24 1,712 



Mossel Bay 17 707 



George 19 979 



Knysna 13 810 



Uniondale 12 1,690 



Oudtshoorn 19 1,653 



Worcester 30 2,623 



Ladismith 16 1,256 



Paarl 23 610 



Komgha 27 546 



Cathcart 28 995 



Queenstown 4 1,749 



Butterworth 7 311 



Idutywa 1 



Willowvale 4 



St. Marks' 4 471 



