302 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



little progress has yet been made. In the West Indies and British Guiana, 

 our knowledge of the soils, particularly from the economic standpoint, has 

 been further enriched by the work of Prof. F. Hardy and his collaborators, 

 though no occasion has arisen for mapping the soils. It is probable that 

 national soil survey will become one of the chief objects of the newly 

 formed (1935) Indian Society of Soil Science. 



It will thus be seen that there are few parts of the Empire where soil 

 survey in one form or another is not engaging the attention of the authorities. 

 A soil survey is not, however, the object of the Committee, whose terms of 

 reference were ' to examine and report on the soil resources of the Empire.' 

 To fulfil this purpose, the Committee proposed to relate the external 

 environment (especially climate and ecology) with the available soil data. 

 Unfortunately it appeared that where one set of data (e.g. the environmental) 

 was available, the other (soil) usually was lacking. Thus, for Canada, 

 where a general soil map is now being prepared, the Committee has not 

 received from its collaborators any climatic or vegetation maps. For New 

 Zealand, on the other hand, Mr. Buchanan has prepared vegetation and 

 rainfall maps for the Committee, but extensive soil data are lacking. Prof. 

 I. B. Pole Evans has recently (1935) left with the Soil Bureau a copy of his 

 new vegetation map of South Africa, but circumstances have prevented 

 Prof. Plummer (Pretoria) from preparing a rainfall map, and practically no 

 real soil survey work, except for irrigation purposes, has been done. Mr. 

 Williamson has mapped the existing rainfall data for India, but the various 

 soil maps are admittedly largely hypothetical and there is little agreement 

 as to which approximates most closely to truth. Australia, on the other 

 hand, has a rainfall map prepared for the Committee by Prof. Rishbeth 

 and soil and vegetation maps previously prepared by Prof. Prescott. 

 No data have been collected by the Committee for the colonies and de- 

 pendencies, except East Africa (Prof. Rodwell Jones). It must be admitted 

 that East Africa is the only instance in which the Committee has been able 

 to make useful contact with the ' man-on-the-spot ' (see above). 



The man-on-the-spot is, indeed, both the essential link and the greatest 

 difficulty in the Committee's project. His co-operation is imperative, as 

 he alone can verify soil descriptions and data. But he is usually, if not 

 overworked, at least involved in so many different problems that he is 

 unable to give attention to matters outside his ordinary duties. If he is 

 engaged on soil survey, his methods are likely to be prescribed not so much 

 by standard scientific principles as by the economic requirements and 

 agricultural policy of his country. There is no likelihood at present of 

 securing any uniformity of outlook or execution in soil surveys. At the 

 same time it seems probable that at least provisional soil maps of most 

 countries in the Empire will be available within the next decade. In view 

 of these facts, the Committee might consider the advisability of continuing 

 to compile its geographical data independently of the actual soil surveyors, 

 aiming at being in a position, as and when soil surveys are published, to 

 utilise the latter in conjunction with the geographical data to produce on a 

 more or less uniform basis something analogous to a land classification survey. 

 In this connection it may be mentioned that the International Society of 

 Soil Science proposes that land classification, as opposed to soil classification, 

 should be one of the chief subjects for discussion at its next international 

 congress in 1940. The Committee might explore the possibilities of pro- 

 ducing, for presentation to this congress, a scheme and examples of land 

 classification in the British Empire based on the material it has collected. 



