24 



TEE AQBIODLTURAL JOURNAL. 



tions that on the 14th instant he will be 

 leaving Natal for a twelvemonth, a fact 

 which will be of interest to the numerous 

 colonists who know and esteem him. His 

 knowledge is great and varied, especially 

 in all concerning the mechanical arts, and 

 all that he knows he is always willing to 

 impart to others. 



Dear Sir, — I am sorry to say none of us 

 know or can suggest a remedy for your 

 correspoH dent's bursting grapes. " Gros 

 Colman " must be rather a delicate grape. 

 With our different kinds cracking of the 

 skins of the berries occurs very rarely. 

 Bursting is the consequence of a dry 

 spring and early summer, and if towards 

 the ripening stage the rainfall becomes 

 rather heavy — an almost regular occu rrence 

 in Natal— then an increased quantity of 

 sap is forced to the berries, whose skins 

 do not expand in proportion, and if of 

 a brittle texture must necessaiily burst. 

 Grafting Gros Colman on Isabella stock 

 might have a good effect. For instance, 

 we could do nothing with "Virginia" 

 from California, as it came, but after being 

 grafted (root grafted) on to Isabella stock, 

 it does splendidly. 



I am, &c., 



Br. Nivard. 



Trappist Monastery, Mariannhill, 

 Pinetown, 1st March, 1901. . 



Dear Sir,— In reply to Mr. Delvin's 

 query about his muscatel grapes breaking 

 the skin when ripening, I think he will 

 find that by keeping the branches entirely 

 from all wet and rain that this fault will 

 be corrected. The muscatel is a very 

 " lusty" grape. Has Mr, Delvin manured 

 too heavily ? or pruned too severely ? 



All our grapes except Catawbas must 

 be trained under verandahs or eaves ; they 

 cannot stand rain on the fruit when ripen- 

 ing. The Cape Hannepoort grapes scarcely 

 ever have a shower upon them, and I 

 fancy in other countries the summers are 

 dry during the ripening process. Paper 

 and muslin bagging and the like are better 

 than nothing, l)ut we find that grapes 

 away from the drip of the rain mature 

 beautifully, while those branches close up 

 to a brick wall are the best. Hence the 

 mistake of setting out the trellis work a 

 foot or so from the wall. About manur- 

 ing, vines can stand a lot of good treat- 

 ment as a rule. I have pruned vines for 

 a friend with the result of a heavy crop of 

 grapes. A few weeks, however, before 

 the ripening I met the owner who had a 

 long face, saying his grapes were not 

 blighted. My reply was, " blighted," all 

 but starved. 



Yours, etc., 



W. Lister. 



The Genesis at Basic Staff- 



AN INTERESTING STORY. 



niR THOMAS WRIGHTSON, M.P,, 

 ij President of the Darlington Chamber 

 of Agriculture, in the course of an inter- 

 esting speech at the annual dinner of the 

 above Chamber, on Friday week, told the 

 story of how basic slag came to be added 

 to the list of artificial manures. He had 

 often noticed, he said, how one industry 

 was linked to another, and how intimately 

 agriculture was associated with the 

 different industries of the country. 

 Apparently it had nothing in common 

 with the steel industry, yet he would 

 show how it was closely connected with 

 it. 



Twenty years ago, he said, steel had to 

 be manufactured from hematite iron ore, 

 or other iron ore, free from phosphorus. 



About this time Mr. Sydney Thomas came 

 to the Tees-side, and explained his process 

 by which the bountiful supplies of Cleve- 

 land ironstone, rich in phosphorus, could 

 be converted into steel. Under his guid- 

 ance, he. Sir Thomas Wrightson, having 

 joined, with a few others, erected the first 

 steel works under this principle on the 

 banks of the Tees. The steel from these 

 works was named by Mr. Thomas basic 

 steel ; hence its by-product, slag, came to 

 be known as basic slag. The latter often 

 contained as much as 16 per cent, of phos- 

 phoric acid. 



Mr. Sydney Thomas had recognised the 

 value of phosphoric acid as a fertiliser, 

 but the difficulty was to get it out of the 

 slag, or to treat the slag so as to render it 



