Percent, of 



Field 



Sample. 



(Method III.) 



Percentage of Soil sifted through 1 mm. 

 Sieve. 



INo. 



1. 

 2. 

 3. 



Fine earth. Water. 



92-4 

 89-2 

 85-0 



1-67 



2-37 



68 



Organic 

 matter. 



3-89 



5'48 

 1-74 



Chlorine. Nitrogen. 



on 



0097 



058 



026 

 044 

 030 



Percentage of Soil sifted 

 through | mm Sieve. 



Phos- 



Licue. Potash, phoric 

 oxide. 



25 '14 '11 

 19 '25 '029 

 25 -27 -055 



It will be noticed that Nos. 1, 2, and 3 show much larger proportions 

 of lime and potash than Nos. 20, 21, and 22. Making full allowance for the 

 fact that the one set of samples was collected a long time after the other, 

 and taking due account of their having been collected by different persons, 

 and possibly not from the identical spots in each case, and of their having 

 been analysed by different analysts, it still remains clear that the one 

 method yields much higher results than the other, as indeed one would 

 expect from the inherent differences between the respective solvents used. 

 From the nature of the soils- examined one could not otherwise than conclude 

 that by Method III. a large amount of plant food constituents was ex- 

 tracted from the soil which it would not be proper to consider as plant food in 

 the sense to which the term has been restricted in the course of the present 

 discussion. That such a conclusion would be just seemed clear from a com- 

 parison of the above results, and further proof of this will be forthcoming 

 when the Divisions of Mossel Bay and Riversdale have to be dealt with. 



The southern part of the George Division, that is to say, the portion 

 lying between the Outemiqua Range and the sea, cannot, from a chemical 

 point of view, be considered as very promising : the samples examined, 

 which come from that area, are, almost without exception, poor in all the im- 

 portant elements of mineral plant food. The soils are very fine grained, 

 and there is a good quantity of nitrogenous material in the soil, but with 

 the lack of lime, and the acid nature of the soil, it is exceedingly doubtful 

 whether much of it is capable of conversion into a form in which it could 

 be absorbed by plants. 



On a later page, in connection with the soils of the Malmesbury Divi- 

 sion, allusion is made to the clay slate beds which constitute the oldest sedi- 

 mentary rocks of the south-western part of the Colony ; above these lies the 

 sandstone formation with which not only the Outeniqua Mountains are 

 capped, but also all the mountain ranges stretching from Table Mountain 

 in the Cape Division to Cape St. Francis, including the Hex River Moun- 

 tains and the Langeberg Range. This sandstone, by disintegration, forms a 

 loose sand, very poor for agricultural purposes, producing a vegetation of 

 little more than sour grass. Firs, and similar forest trees may, neverthe- 

 less, find sufficient nourishment in such soils, though unsuited for ordinary 

 crops. 



North of the Outeniqua Mountains the potash in the soil shows some 

 improvement : the five soils collected on the farms Klip Drift and Groot 

 Doom Rivier all contain a fair amount. This is also the case in regard to 

 phosphoric oxide, except as far the alluvial soil No. 15 is concerned. This 

 soil is poor in phosphates, and is also poorer than any others in the neigh- 

 bourhood in respect of potash. In all these soils lime is still very deficient, 

 although not to the same extreme as south of the Outeniquas. 



The Long Kloof soils, extending from Grootfontein in the George 

 Division to Krakeel River in the Division of Uniondale, and represented 

 by samples 16, 17, 18, and 19, in the above list, together with Nos. 4, 5, ^, 

 7, and 8 of the Uniondale Division soils, are uniformly poor in lime, and 



