No. 13 was collected on the Government farm Koopmansfontein from: 

 flat country abounding in Vaalbos, sour karree, a sort of ganna bush, 

 reeds, and long grass, and formed a fair type of the grazing ground in the 

 vicinity. The ground is of a rocky nature and the soil shallow, with a 

 gravelly subsoil. Fragments of limestone lie strewn about the land, which, 

 in the spot whence the sample was taken had never been under cultivation 



The following are the results of the chemical analyses* of the soils 

 comprised in the foregoing lists : 



(Method I.) 



No. 



1 



2 



3 



4 



5 



6 



7 



8 



9 



10 

 11 

 12 

 13 



No . 1 , from a chemical point of view, is poor all round : No-. 2 is fairly 

 well supplied with potash, but poor in other respects. Of the two Patry- 

 kraal soils, No. 4 is below normal in all plant food constituents, but No. 3 

 has a better supply ; both soils, however, are lacking in phosphates. Nos. 

 5 and 9 are two soils which are chemically very poor. No. 6 has a moder- 

 ate proportion of nitrogen, but its mineral plant food is deficient. The 

 Zwartputs soil, No. 8, which was recognised by external appearance as a 

 soil of different type from the preceding, also proved to be superior upon. 

 analysis; it possesses a fair supply of all plant food, phosphoric oxide ex- 

 cepted. The brown loam No. 7 is altogether the best of the entire series : 

 chemical analysis shows the amounts of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric 

 oxide to be normal, lime being present in abundance. It does not seem 

 impossible that the doleritic rocks in the vicinity may have contributed 

 greatly to the chemical constituents of this soil. 



The farm represented by No. 13 is about sixty thousand acres in ex- 

 tent, and, in view of the fact that the cattle whose glazing ground it con- 

 stitutes are prone to attacks of " lamziekte/' the scantiness of phosphatic 

 material in the soil deserves attention. At the same time one soil sample 

 can scarcely be taken as 1 typical of so extended an area, and if it were ? 

 the difficulty presented of remedying a lack of phosphates in so wide a 

 tract is undoubtedly enormous. 



* For mechanical analyses of Nos. 10. 11 and 12. see under "Physical Composition of 



Soils.' 1 



