10 SCIENCE BULLETIN, No. 12. 



The subsoil of the unaffected areas is a gravelly or sandy loam, rich in 

 oxides of bases, both in acid-soluble and insoluble form. 



Table II gives a comparison between the average compositions of seventeen 

 soils from affected parts of the South Coast and seventeen soils from 

 unaffected parts. As the analyses have already appeared in my paper on 

 " The South Coast Soils,"* they are not again published. The facts noticed 

 in comparing Tables IA and IB are again in evidence, and come out still 

 more strikingly if we compare five typical osteo-malacia soils, on which the 

 disease is rampant, with seventeen soils from absolutely free areas, as in 

 Tables III and IV. 



Through the kindness of Stock-Inspector Mater I was supplied with some 

 more Bergalia andesite soil, on which bone-chewing was .very bad, and I 

 found these samples of even better chemical composition than the one 

 previously examined. Moreover, there is no diminution of lime upwards, the 

 first 4 inches being as rich in that ingredient as the third 4 inches. In 

 the course of the analyses it was, however, discovered that the top soil 

 contains a large amount of manganese, which is less plentiful at a depth. 

 The average manganese percentage in the first 12 inches is '140 per cent., so 

 the surface 4 inches may contain '250 per cent. This being quite sufficient 

 to injure most of the nutritious grasses, the presence of manganese in such 

 amount may therefore be the cause of the spread of Bergalia grass, and thus, 

 indirectly, of the bone-chewing habit. 



It is clear from the analyses that when lime falls below '250 per cent, the 

 soil has no lasting qualities, and the cattle on it become bone-chewers. A 

 few years of cultivation and dairying exhausts such soil. 



Agricultural Gazette of New South Walts, vol. 21, p. 95 (February 1910 ) 



