Soils of South AfricaSoils of South Africaby Martin Fey . Cambridge University Press, Cape Town (http://cambridge.org). 2010. Pp. 287. Price R225. Hardback, ISBN 978 1107 000 506.

Abstract

This is the first book in 70 years on soils of South Africa and is a significant scientific contribution on the understanding of South African soils. As the title suggests, this book's main objective is to give the reader a comprehensive view on the unique soils of South Africa, their distribution, properties, classification, genesis and land use. The author has developed his own grouping system with which all the soils from the South African soil classification system are grouped into fourteen distinctive soil groups. This totally new concept for South African soils and the key on how to do this is well thought out. This book compares well with any book written in the U.S.A. or Europe and is quite unique in the way the author strikes a relationship between animals and soils. There have been no previous attempts in the literature to illustrate the contribution of animals to soil formation so clearly as this book.