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THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE SOILS OF THE 
SOUTH-WESTERN DISTRICTS OF THE CAPE COLONY. 
By Cuas. F. Juritz, M.A. 
(Read January 31, 1900.) 
(Plates XVII, XVIII., XIX., XX., XXI.) 
Amongst the many valuable papers read before this Society from 
time to time no record is to be found of any dealing with the 
chemical composition of the various classes of soil met with in the 
Colony. This may, perhaps, be regarded as surprising to scientific 
investigators in other lands: have we not heard, again and again, 
almost ad nauseam, the agriculturist described as the country’s 
backbone, and has not the soil been termed, and quite rightly, the 
_ only permanent and reliable source of wealth in any country ? Such 
being the case, how is it that we have hitherto heard so little about 
it? One reason is clearly the paucity of men capable of conducting 
scientific research in this Colony. For private investigators, except 
they be men of considerable means, the researches involved in the 
analysis of a country’s soils are far out of reach, and, all the world 
over, the practice has been for such investigations to be conducted 
under Government auspices. Where these inquiries have been set 
afoot, moreover, they have been carried out through the media of 
Agricultural Departments. Now in this country the Department of 
Agriculture is just getting into its teens: very unambitious was its 
inauguration, and whatever error, if any, there has been in its sub- 
sequent development, it has assuredly not been on the side of forced 
growth. Hence, when an analytical laboratory was instituted—the 
indispensable adjunct to a Department of Agriculture—it was on an 
extremely modest scale. Scientific research was, for the first few 
years of its existence, looked upon as an Utopian ideal, and even now 
one requires to tread the way cautiously and warily. The object, at 
the initiation of the laboratory, was rather to provide means for 
analysing such articles as solitary farmers and others might chance 
to submit for the purpose. It was the individual who was to be 
served rather than the country at large. For a few years this 
principle had been maintained, and in this state I found the Govern- 
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