Well drained soils of the State of São Paulo belong to the great red-yellow podzolic and latosolic soil groups. These soils have predominantly kaolinite and hydrated iron and aluminum oxides in the clay fractions. The cation-exchange capacity and other data on these soils show that the organic fraction must play an important role in the cation-exchange process. The study of the adsorptive capacity of the organic matter was done by destruction of the organic fraction of the soil by 12% hydrogen peroxide. For heavy textured soils the results show that the organic fraction most resistant to oxidation had a higher cation-exchange capacity than the portion first oxidized. For sandy soils all organic fractions had the same magnitude in the base adsorbing power. It was observed that the organic matter seems to inhibit the base-exchange capacity of the mineral fraction. Plotting the percentage of cation-exchange capacity of the organic fraction against the percentage of organic carbon in the soil, a curve is determined which shows the inhibition phenomenon. The results were rather scattered and the experiments are now being repeated to elucidate these observations. The organic cation-exchange capacity of soils in São Paulo is 30-40% for fine textured soils and 50-60% for sandy soils. Since most of the farming land in São Paulo belongs to the sandy soil group called Bauru, the problem of maintaining or increasing the fertility of these soils is dependent on their organic matter content.