86 



Cloete, of Alexaudersfontein, through whose good offices specimens of 

 hillock and other soils were procured for comparative analysis, stated that 

 for the last four years he had been urging farmers to use lime largely on 

 the poor cold soils between the hillocks, and he quoted instances of very 

 poor lands having yielded heavy crops of wheat by the aid of a good 

 dressing of lime. 



In order to ascertain by chemical analysis what difference, if any,, 

 existed between the hillock soils and those of the lower levels, samples of 

 each were specially collected and analysed. Those from hillocks are num- 

 bered 65, 66, and 67, and those from the level below 68, 69, and 70: all 

 of these were taken from lands that had been cultivated. In every case 

 the soils taken from the low-lying ground proved to be exceedingly poor 

 in lime, and herein lies the great difference between the hillock soils and 

 those below, curiously enough tending to verify Mr. Cloete's prognostica- 

 tions. Even the hillock soils Nos. 66 and 67 are rather deficient in limey 

 although considerably superior to the lower soils. No. 65 contains lime 

 in fair amount. The potash present in the hillock soils is fair in quan- 

 tity, but in this respect No. 69 is poor, while Nos. 68 and 70 show a 

 moderate proportion, although in each case poorer than the correspond- 

 ing samples from the hillocks. As far as phosphates go, there is a fair 

 proportion in the hillock soils, but the other three are rather poor. These 

 few analyses tend to confirm the popular idea; and yet the difference all 

 round is not as striking as sooiie of the statements made might possibly 

 have led one to expect. To this last observation there is just the excep- 

 tion already noted that of the lime. Physically as well as chemically, 

 the hillock soils appear to be slightly superior : in water retentive capa- 

 city their average stands higher thaw that of the soils around, a point 

 also noted in connection with the soils collected on the farm Karnemelks- 

 fontein (vide p. 82). There is, moreover, a better proportion of organic 

 matter in the hillock soils than in the others, and the former are likewise 

 the richer in nitrogen. Without unduly pressing the points of difference,, 

 the inferiority of the low-lying soils also comes out in the amounts of 

 chlorine they contain, in as far as these amounts indicate tendency to be- 

 come brack : all along the line, therefore, the hillock soils have points in. 

 their favour. 



Reverting for a moment to the soils from Karnemelkslontein, it may 

 be observed that there too the hillock soil was the better, not only in 

 water retaining capacity, but likewise in organic matter and nitrogen, and 

 there too the chief difference lay in the proportion of lime. 



Another instance of comparative analyses of hillock and level soils 

 will be briefly referred to in connection with the farm Groenberg in the 

 Paarl Division. 



Under all the circumstances it seems quite feasible that the process 

 of levelling down the hillocks said to have been attended with general 

 improvement of the land in some instances may have led to an all-round 

 increase in fertility, notably where these hillocks have been numerous. 

 It seems also reasonable to suppose, from what these results reveal, that 

 an addition of lime would lead to an improvement. Speaking of car- 

 bonate of lime as a dominant factor in soil productiveness, Professor Hil- 

 garcl observes : * 



" Its presence exerts a dominant and beneficial influence in many respect-, us i< readily 

 apparent from the prompt change in vegetation whenever it is introduced into soil* 

 deficient in it." 



* Hilgard : " Soils ; their formation, properties, composition and relations to climate 

 and plant growth." 1006, pp. :}. r >:?, :5:-4. 



