4:2 



Sample 43 was taken from the escarpment on the upper side of the 

 Molteno Reservoir. No. 44 was taken from a locality in the Government 

 Avenue, Cape Town, where the oak trees were dying off. The cause of 

 this was obvious: there was a fair amount of lime and potash in the soil, 

 which was also well stocked with nitrogen, and although it was very poor 

 in phosphates, this did not afford an 'adequate solution of the difficulty, 

 which appeared to be physical rather than chemical, and exactly illus- 

 trates the closing sentence of Mr. A. D. Hall's remarks quoted on page 

 18. The soil was a stiff bluish clay, and exhaled a distinct sour odour 

 when fresh and moist: the acidity was found to be '06 per cent., calcu- 

 lated as oxalic acid. In situ it was a stiff, damp clay, and this fact, 

 coupled with the presence of much organic matter, and the lack of aera- 

 tion, in the soil, undoubtedly accounted for the ill effects observed. 



From the top of Table Mountain samples 45 and 46 were collected : 

 they were, of course, typical Table Mountain sandstone soils. Practical 

 experience had declared the soil there to be extremely poor; in fact, 

 according to the Conservator of Forests, it has been found that only 

 Pines and Acacias flourish on it, and that on a larger scale only the 

 cluster pine has been successfully grown. Even this tree failed when 

 planted on the soil represented by No. 46, although on No. 45 it grew 

 well : this was attributed to the fact that the latter had the better sub- 

 soil of the two. 



Two soils were collected from private gardens at Sea, Point. One of 

 these, No. 47, was taken, from the surface of a piece of ground that had 

 been trenched to a depth of three feet for the cultivation of vines: here, 

 as in the case of the Parliament House garden soil, No. 6, several lots 

 .were taken from various parts of the area intended to be cultivated, and 

 a thorough mixture made. 



Many of the soils in the last list were collected with the idea of ob- 

 taining some information relative to the chemical composition of forest 

 soils, and. of areas proposed to be afforested. Thus, one sample was taken 

 from the site of a projected tree plantation at Robben Island. This soil, 

 No. 49, yielded a rather small amount of potash, but the phosphate of 

 lime present in an available condition was unnaturally large in quantity; 

 as this was hardly to be expected in so sandy a soil it appeared to point 

 to the presence of a great deal of bone material : the sample was there- 

 upon examined microscopically, and quantities of minute fragments of 

 bones were found therein. 



Four samples were collected at Fernwood, Newlands, and one, No. 

 54, was taken from a garden at Kenilworth : of these, Nos. 50, 51, and 53 

 had been under cultivation in former years, but not latterly, while No. 52 

 was meadow land which had been quite recently broken up. These five 

 soils practically all lack potash and phosphates. 



Two samples of Cape Flats clays, Nos. 55 and 56, were collected on 

 the Wynberg Flats, near the Kenilworth Racecourse: of these. No. 5q 

 was a white kaolin or China clay, and the other a plastic, dark coloured 

 clay, which occurs, in a thin layer, above the kaolin. These beds of pure 

 white kaolin underlie an extensive area of the Cape Flats sands ; appar- 

 ently, however, these Cape Flats clays do not extend very far east of the 

 railway line. Sample No. 57 represents a similar white clay, which forms 

 the subsoil of the forest plantation on the Wynberg Flats. 



Nos. 58 to 63 represent red Coustantia loams, and were collected from 

 the Eucalypt arboretum at Tokai. The arboretum comprises several 

 plots, containing not less than 40 six-year-old trees each, and, although, 

 never previously cultivated, the area was in farmer times probably over- 

 grown with Leucodendron (Silver tree) and Mountain bushes. 



