770 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION M. 



The following Papers were then read : — 



1. Reports on Infliience of War upon Supplies and Use of Fertilisers 



and Feeding-stuffs. 



(a) The Manurial Situation and its DifficuUies. 

 By Professor J. Hendrick. 



(b) New Feeding -stuffs. By E. T. Halnan. 



2. The Accumulation of Fertility in Grass-land, as a Ptesult of Phos- 

 phatic Dressings of Basic Slag. By Professor W. Somerville, 

 M.A., D.Sc. 



It is well known that in most cases the application of 5-10 cwt. per acre of 

 basic slag to permanent grass-land results in a large increase in the weight 

 of herbage, and especially of the Legmninoste. The immediate result is that 

 if the herbage is grazed by stock the area can carry a greater number of 

 animals, and each individual animal makes improved increase in weight. 



It appeared probable that concurrently with the stimulus to the herbage 

 there would be an accumulation of fertility in the land, and it is a point of 

 interest to discover the extent of such accumulated fertility. Five farms 

 were therefore selected, where grass-land had been treated with slag during 

 recent years, certain parts having been left undressed. About a cwt. of soil 

 was sent to Oxford from each centre, part from grass-land that had been 

 slagged and part from untreated land. This was put in pots in the spring 

 of 1914, and in these pots, without further treatment, a ' crop ' of oats (1914), 

 two crops of mustard (autumn 1914), and a crop of wheat (1915) have been 

 grown. 



Five pots were filled with soil from ' slagged ' and five from ' unslagged ' 

 pasture from each centre. The slag had been applied at somewhat varying 

 times and in varying quantity at the different centres ; but it is unnecessary in 

 this abstract to go into details, except to say that the accumulation of fertility 

 is in close relationship with the amount of slag tised. 



In four cases the ' slagged ' soil has been found to produce increased yields 

 of oats, mustard, and wheat, though the fertility that has accumulated has 

 varied in degree. The ' slagged ' soil from Cockle Park, which has been 

 longest under treatment, produced — as compared with ' unslagged ' soil — about 

 140 per cent, more oats, 30 per cent, more mustard (first crop), 70 per cent, 

 more mustard (second crop), and about 40 per cent, more wheat, the average 

 increase from this station being 62 per cent. Another set of soils showed 

 an aggregate increase of 57 per cent. ; other two gave increases of 12 and 8 

 per cent, respectively, while the fifth did not respond consistently after the 

 oat crop, which, however, was increased by 20 per cent. Adding together all 

 the four crops, and taking the average for the five soils, it was found that the 

 increase was 25 per cent. It is therefore evident that the factors of pro- 

 duction have been materially increased as a consequence of using basic slag 

 on grass-land, a result of no small importance in view of the fact that con- 

 siderable areas laid down to grass during recent years may again come under 

 the plough. 



3. The Composition and Uses of certain Seaweeds. 

 By Professor James Hendrick, B.Sc, F.I.G. 



There is an old-established industry in the preparation of kelp or the ash of 

 seaweed in certain parts of the coast crofting districts of Scotland and Ire- 

 land. This industry has experienced many ups and downs during its history 

 and has always been a poor, badly organised, peasant industry. In recent 



