STORING OF SUPERPHOSPHATE. 



141 



got with experiments on basic slag on a meadow, poor in phos- 

 phoric acid, which only yielded about 1^ tons per hectare of hay 

 (say 12 cwt. per acre). A series of plots received 800 kilos of basic 

 slag per hectare, say 320 kilos (704 lbs.) per acre on 30 October, 

 1889, another series remained mimanm-ed. As an auxiliary manure 

 the same amount of kainit was applied and the same dose applied 

 ■every year. The phosphatic manure was not renewed. The 800 

 kg. of basic slag per hectare (704 lb. per acre) applied once have 

 produced : — 



TABLE XLIV.— SHOWING FOR A SUCCESSION OF YEARS THE IN- 

 CREASE IN HAY FROM ONE APPLICATION OF BASIC SLAG TO 

 A POOR MEADOW. 



13,880 



The manuring with 800 kg. per hectare (704 lb. per acre) of 

 "basic slag, once applied, has continued to act during nine consecu- 

 tive years, and has produced during this interval 13-880 metric 

 tons of hay per hectare, say 5 tons 12 cwt. per acre. In this ex- 

 periment the basic slag has not been rendered insoluble, and the 

 reserve of manure entrusted to the soil has been nothing less than 

 profitable. It goes without saying that this experiment, by itself 

 alone, ought to afford instruction as to how a phosphate manure 

 •once applied behaves in its restorative action, for to entrust a soil 

 with a reserve of manure, and to allow this manure to act for nine 

 years without restoring the amount consumed by vegetation, would 

 be quite irrational ; moreover, the abgve experiments, which have 

 been varied by others in different directions, have shown that a 

 yearly application of manure still further increases the yield.^ 



1 It is hardly sound or logical reasoning to apply the permanently basic slag 

 in the soil to that of superphosphate. This meadow possibly was sour and 

 wanted lime which basic slag supplied. Part of a 25-acre field was limed, then 

 planted with Scots pine ; the pasture under the trees on the limed portion was 

 easily differentiated by its excellent quality 40-50 years afterwards from the 

 almost bare unlimed portion. — Tr. 



