298 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 
and render more available the nutritive elements of the soil, but 
even plantations the soils of which have been carefully pre-: | 
pared before planting, produce results which are far from satis- 
factory. ‘The poverty of the soil,” says Smets, “is the general 
cause of the failure of the pine in the Campine.” The idea has 
prevailed that the Scotch-pine can succeed everywhere, that it 
only demands a trace of nutritive elements, that every soil suits 
it. Although the demands on the soil by this pine may be less 
than other forestal species, nevertheless a’ soil may reach an 
almost hopeless sterile stage after years of cropping by the 
removal of wood and the surface humus and soil. It is well 
known, too, that trees on such soil are more subject to disease 
and quickly succumb. ‘They are simply stunted by starvation. 
Young trees en masse are, it is said, as exacting in their demands 
upon the soil as a crop of rye.* Although, as I have already 
said in the previous chapter of this report, very little reliance 
can be placed in the chemical examination of a soil, the absence 
of one essential ingredient may compromise the whole crop. 
When a tree grows rapidly and reproduces itself abundantly, as 
occurs in the pine-lands of South Jersey, it is evidence enough, 
without chemical examinations, that the soil is in good condi- 
tion, no matter how barren it may appear. In the Plains of 
South Jersey, which are treeless, only one essential may be lack- 
ing or the difficulty may be a physical one. According to 
Schiitze, pineries may be classified as follows: 
Phosphoric Acid, Potash, Lime (Chaux), 
Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 
Pinery, ist class, ....... 0.0501 0.0457 1.8876 
o Bde SE agg te ap es 0.0569 0.0632 0.1622 
SP Bde) EE! Ase isnay seis 0.0388 0.1221 0.1224 
athe ee eeheyibddeie, 8 0.0299 0.0392 0.0963 
es th ee ee age ae 0.0236 0.0241 0.0270 
OO GbR A ayes ah 2 oh anu 0.0236 0.0215 0.0458 
The Expt. Station Record gives tables which, in general, 
show the limits assigned to rich and to poor soils. ‘They are as 
follows: 
*The sands of the Golden Gate Park were so poor in nature that barley sown on its surface after 
being ploughed and cultivated in a favorable season with plenty of moisture, grew only about six inches 
in height and failed to perfect its seed. After planting sea grass to fix the sand and lupines to enrich the 
soil, the trees which were planted only grew to a height of ten feet, owing to the lack of nutriment in the 
‘soil, See the Reclamation of Drifting Sand Dunes, in the Forester, for October, 1899. 
