SUGAR CANE SOILS. 



" In Class II. we have the soils which are not infrequently met with in "belts 

 known as sand reefs crossing sugar estates. They are to a great extent practically 

 useless for economic cultivation. 



" Class III. consists of soils frequently characteristic of parts of the sugar 

 estatas, and of which much of the swamps and wet Savannahs of the back parts of 

 the illuvial coast lands consists. They also are found very commonly at short 

 distances back from the banks of the lower parts of our rivers and creeks. As 

 indicated earlier in this report, they are essentially peat soils, and as such are 

 unsatisfactory and difficult to work. But given tillage, drainage, and amelioration 

 of their texture by admixture with the underlying clays, they offer mines of wealth 

 of plant food for future agriculturists in this colony." 



Harrison states that 



"The alluvial soils of British Guiana are largely derived from seaborne mud 

 from the Amazon river, and are not delta soils of the Guianan rivers." 



The mean composition of the coast soils included in Class I. he gives as 



Per cent. 

 Nitrogen -209 



Lime -212 



Potash -425 



Phosphoric Acid . . -072 



Soluble in 20 per cent, hydrochloric 

 acid at the temperature of boiling 

 water over five working days. 



A tract of virgin savannah land, situated six miles west of the Berbice 

 river and four miles from the coast, was found by the writer to be of the 



following average composition : 



Soluble in 



Total quantities 1 per cent, 



per cent.* on citric acid 



air dry soil. with 5 hours' 



continual shaking. 



Lime -153 .... '0312 



Magnesia -539 . . . -2635 



Potash 1-467 .... '0162 



Phosphoric Acid -093 '0034 



Humus 6-013 



Nitrogen -479 



The soil was a tenacious grey clay underlying a layer of ' pegass ' from 

 three to six inches deep, and was sampled to a depth of one foot. 



Egyptian Soils. The Egyptian soils upon which the cane is culti- 

 vated are in Upper Egypt, and lie in a narrow strip on both banks of the Nile ; 

 the soil is all an alluvial deposit of great depth, overlying a basis of sand, and 

 has been formed, and is continually renewed, by the overflow of the Nile. 

 Numerous analyses have been made of these soils, many of which have been 

 collected by Pellet and Roche. 9 They remark : 



"The soil of this district is very uniform in its general composition; the 

 percentage of calcium carbonate is from 5 to 7, of sand from 20 to 60, of clay from 

 20 to 60, of humus -8 to 1-3. 



" The very compact nature of the greater part of the soils attracts attention, 

 and certainly influences to a greater or less extent the availability of the fertilizing 

 elements. 



" Very remarkable is the presence, rare in arable soils, of a large quantity of 

 magnesia, from 1 per cent, to 3 per cent. 



* Determined by decomposition with sulphuric acid and ammonium fluoride. 



49 



