72 



In judging of the latent fertility of the soil of any portion, the pre- 

 vailing physical conditions, such as the nature and divisibility of the sur- 

 face a<nd subsoil, the situation and slope of the land, the exposure to pre- 

 vailing winds, thunderstorms, and rains, always important factors, should 

 be even more largely taken into account in the case of this division than 

 is usually done. From a chemical point of view, external evidence leads 

 one to expect a soil rich, on the whole, in the essential mineral plant 

 foods, lime, potash, and phosphoric oxide, the last named, perhaps, not 

 quite so plentiful in proportion as the other two. 



In some cases the clayey nature of the soil makes draining desirable. 

 Where this has been done, "excellent results have been reported. Very 

 little manuring is earned on, due to the scarcity of manure. A start has, 

 however, been made with artificial fertilisers. Fruit trees, such as pears 

 and plums, especially Japanese plum and orange, seem to thrive, and near 

 the coast bananas do well. Wheat does not grow satisfactorily, although 

 at one time its cultivation was profitable. On the other hand, the lands 



/"":." 



J 'OlVloHAL MAP or 



KOMCHA 



stand maize well. A very possible explanation of this may be the fact 

 that wheat is sown on lands which have borne crops of this cereal for a 

 considerable time in the past, and consequently have undergone great loss 

 of phosphatic material.* But maize, taking out of the soil a larger 

 amount of lime in proportion than wheat, is able to flourish where wheat 

 does but poorly. 



Sample No. 1 was collected on the farm Prospect ; it represents a 

 dark hillside soil, with a red gravelly subsoil. No. 2 was also collected 

 on this farm. Fruit growing is very successfully carried on here. Nos. 

 3 and 4 are types of black soils "from the adjoining farm Ferndale. 

 Around the locality whence the samples were taken, doleritic boulders 

 were noticed. Nos. 5, 6, and 7 were collected on the farm Reedfontein. 

 Of these, No. 5, a soil of good depth, was stated to yield poor results when 

 sown with oats. No. 6, on the other hand, which contains nearly double 

 the proportion of phosphoric oxide, and three times the quantity of 

 potash, gave good results with the same crop another instance of prac- 

 tical experience bearing out the results of chemical analysis. No. 7, lying 

 on a subsoil of yellow clay, was reported to be very poor. The subsoil, 

 which comes to within a short distance of the surface, was noticed to be 



See remarks on this subject on pp. 45 and 47. 



