The Formation of Soils in Equatorial Regions, with Special Reference to Java (Netherlands East Indies)

Of all the countries in the equatorial belt, the island of Java, so far has offered perhaps the best opportunities for testing out the theory as stated above. This is due to various circumstances of which we may mention only the fact that for the last one hundred years or so it has had a stable government under white supervision. Since agriculture is the main industry of the country, the government has paid particular attention to the scientific investigation of problems relating to soils and their beat uses. Thus it came about that Dutch agricultural chemists have accumulated a wealth of material on fundamental problems, a, o. with respect to soil formation in equatorial regions. But, owing to the fact that their contributions have, for the greater part, been published in the Dutch language only, their names and works are hardly known outside of their own country, except, perhaps, for such men as Van Bemmelen (now dead) and Hissink*