SELECTING AND CLASSIFYING LAND. 19 



ties of the indigenous vegetation is also brought to bear, 

 there is a closer approach to certainty in our work. By 

 analysis of soil, we get at its various parts by separating 

 them, in the mechanical or practical, and the chemical sense, 

 and can come to very definite conclusions regarding the 

 suitability of any soil for grazing or cultivation purposes. 

 Plants live like other things, and the soil must supply the 

 basis of the means of life that is, the plant food other- 

 wise there must be poor grass or short crops, or no crops at 

 all, and the attendant risks of disease and bitter disappoint- 

 ment. 



Earth Substances for Making Grass and Crops. For 

 grazing and for cultivation one of the most important 

 substances indeed, the most important part of the soil is 

 the vegetable or organic matter. This contains the 

 available nitrogen, which plays such an important part in 

 building up plant life. When with this the mineral 

 substances are sufficiently abundant, the best grasses and 

 the most plentiful crops can be got. In this climate 

 the vegetable matter contains most of the plant food in 

 such condition that the roots of plants can take it up at 

 once, and enables them further to reach all the mineral 

 food they can find in the soil and the subsoil. But this 

 matter is not very abundant, and the agriculturist acts 

 wisely who saves all he can. By cultivation, by rotation 

 of crops, by manuring, and by resting or fallowing the 

 land, the process of making plant food is quickened. The 

 soils having the most vegetable matter take in rain-water 

 most readily, and hold it longest for the use of crops or 

 grass. This, in dealing with Australian soils, the analyses 

 going on prove, is a rule almost without an exception, and 

 it proves conclusively how destructive is the custom of 

 burning grass, or stubble, or indeed any vegetable matter 

 on the land. We have none to spare for the purpose. 



Judging Soils by Analysis. The soils here described 

 have been separated, or analysed mechanically (in the 

 farming sense) and chemically to prove their contents : 

 also tested for their capacity to absorb and hold water, 

 in the manner suitable for vegetable life. The figures 

 represent each soil divided into 100- parts of the whole, 



