167 



It may be pointed out just here that one of the soils classed as a true 

 Bokkeveld soil, viz., that from Poortfontein, in Table IX., bears a consider- 

 able resemblance in chemical composition to those enumerated in Table X. 

 Its potash, compared with the deficiency of lime and phosphoric oxide, is 

 high, but not so high as the general run of true Bokkeveld soils, and in 

 both lime and phosphoric oxide it is the poorest of the Bokkeveld soils. 

 It has been here classed among the latter because of its geographical posi- 

 tion, but it would appear almost certain, upon the basis of the reason 

 just stated, that it must have been derived from the basement beds of 

 the Bokkeveld series. 



Above the Bokkeveld beds, and therefore geologically of more recent 

 date, are those of the Witteberg series. They consist of quartzites 

 associated with shales, and the soils thence derived would, therefore, be 

 expected to conform in chemical character with those resulting from the 

 older Table Mountain series. I regret that only four of the soils analysed 

 in our laboratories can be assigned with any clefmiteness to this formation. 

 The results of their analyses are as f ollo\vs : 



XI. WITTEBERG SOILS. 



Phosphoric 

 Division. Farm. Fine earth. Water. Linie. Potash. oxide. 



King William's Town Evelyn Valley. 97'5 6'26 '050 '082 '105 



Ladismith. Elands Vallei. 85'3 '93 '036 '071 '068 



Victoria East. Hogsback. 99'6 5'87 "028 '038 "055 



Worcester. Matjes Kloof. 70'7 '93 '088 '041 '033 



On account of their fewness, it would scarcely be permissible to com- 

 pare these four soils with the forty-six derived from the Table Mountain 

 series; but, as has already been remarked, it is one of my purposes to 

 point out the need of greater exertion, and, on that ground, it may not 

 be unfitting to emphasise paucity of information, so as to induce fuller 

 investigation. There are vast tracts of country dominated and influenced 

 by ranges of mountains built up of the Witteberg beds, and, if the investi- 

 gations proposed by me over a dozen years ago had been both embarked 

 upon and prosecuted with the alacrity fondly pictured at the start, it is 

 possible that the soils of extensive areas would ere now have been mapped 

 out in such a way as to shew, at all events in some respects, how they 

 answer chemically to the requirements of fertility. 



These observations come in most suitably just at this stage, because 

 it was precisely in connection with the Witteberg soils that I was first 

 led to propose to the Government of the day that a systematic agricultural 

 survey of the Colony's soils should be taken in hand, impelled thereto by 

 the results of analyses I had made of soils from the Albany and Humans- 

 dorp Divisions, in both of which areas that bone disease in stock, vernacu- 

 larly termed " lamziekte " (literally " lame sickness ") prevailed. 



The soils of a great part of the Albany Division, and of the adjoining 

 divisions of Bathurst and Willowmore, are apparently largely derived from 

 the quartzites of the Zuurberg range, a mountain chain entirely built up of 

 the Witteberg series; while almost throughout the whole of the Humans- 

 dorp Division the soil is the result solely of disintegration of the great ranges 

 of Table Mountain sandstone which extend along the south coast from 

 George, and eventually die out in the Zitzikama range. These, sandstones 

 and quartzites contain practically nothing capable of affording nutriment 

 to plants, and are almost devoid of the very mineral salts essential for the 

 production of bone material. It would be of more than interest to have 

 the areas that are covered by these poor soils mapped out as exactly as 

 possible, so as to shew their extent, and yet these all-important investiga- 

 tions have been absolutely dormant these seven or eight years past. 



