The following are the analyses of the above mentioned soils: 



(Method I.) 



i. 



2. 



3.* 



4. 



of Soil sifted 

 through i mm. Sieve. 



Pho,- 



Potash. phone 

 oxide. 



043 

 153 

 111 



049 



020 

 110 

 088 

 038 



No. 

 1. 

 2. 

 3. 

 4. 



FORT BEAUFORT. 



(Privately collected.) 



Field Cornetcy. Farm or place. Collector. 



Fort Beaufort. Fort Beaufort Asylum. Medical Superintendent. 



The only samples of soil from this Division that have been analysed 

 are four from the grounds around the Fort Beaufort Asylum. Nos. 1 aaad 

 2 were taken from the garden at the male asylum, and Nos. 3 and 4 from 

 the female asylum garden. The site is in a valley which receives the drain- 

 age of surrounding hills about a quarter of a mile distant : the subsoil is 

 red, with fragments of limestone, and overlies a blue shale. All the sub- 

 soil water in the valley is reputed to possess a tulphurous odour. 



The analyses of these soils resulted as below : 



(Method I.) 



No. 



1. 

 2. 

 3. 



4. 



As these soils have evidently been affected by cultivation and fertilis- 

 ing, very little in the way of general conclusions regarding them can be 

 drawn. Apparently in their original state they were not well supplied 

 with phosphates, for in Nos. 1 and 2 the amount of phosphoric oxide is 

 still low. The lime, organic matter, and nitrogen in No. 4 are unusually 

 high, no doubt as a result of treatment with fertilisers; for the rest it 

 is scarcely possible to tell whether the plant food constituents found are 

 due to natural causes or to manipulation, so that the practical inutility of 

 basing general conclusions upon analyses of cultivated soils is once again 



*For mechanical analysis of this sample see under heading " Physical composi- 

 tion of soils" (Part VII.). 



