gS Summer Application of Basic Slag. [may, 



Farmers who have been unable to obtain deHvery of basic 



slag are advised not to cancel their orders. Basic slag, applied 



at midsummer, may prove quite as effec- 

 Snmmer Application ^-^^ ^^^^ ^-^^ ^ 



of Basic Slag to y ^ i- 



Pastnresr ^ ^^^^ record where a summer applica- 

 tion had results little short of marvellous. 

 In an experiment conducted over a considerable number of 

 years, at Sevington in Hampshire, some ten different methods 

 of manuring grass land were tried. Sheep were grazed on the 

 different plots, and were weighed from time to time. One 

 plot of 3 acres (Plot No. 2) had received 4 tons of lime per 

 acre in 1901. On 13th June, 1907, it received 5 cwt. of basic 

 slag, equal to 100 lb. of phosphoric acid per acre. Mr. Ashcroft, 

 Steward of the Bath 'and West Agricultural Society, reporting 

 on the experiment, says : The application of 5 cwt. of basic 

 slag to this plot on 13th June wrought a marvellous trans- 

 formation. It is commonty said that basic slag requires time 

 and plenty of rainfall before any effect can be seen, but by the 

 August weighing, 8 weeks afterwards, the change in the appear- 

 ance of the plot was quite evident, and all through the following 

 two months perfectly remarkable ; plenty of healthy-looking 

 small clover herbage all over the plot. It was most interesting 

 to observe how the sheep immediately bore witness to the 

 improvement. On Plot 2 the increase of weight per 

 sheep in the fourth month was 9*1 lb. No other plot 

 approached that, not even where sheep were having cake, 

 .and the total increase for the fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 months together was 17-6 lb., which again is higher than 

 any other plot." In his report for the next season, the 

 eighth, Mr. Ashcroft thus expresses himself : "As soon as ever 

 any chance of growth came this spring, the plot became full 

 of clover herbage which grew so luxuriantly that 10 sheep were 

 increased to 12 at the weighing in May, and to 14 at the weighing 

 2nd Jiily. The contrast between Plot 2 and all other plots, 

 so deficient, comparatively speaking, in clovers and bottom 

 herbage, was extraordinary, and perhaps all the more so in a 

 season little favourable to growth. From being at the very 

 bottom of all the manured plots, and very often lower than the 

 untreated one. Plot 2 jumps at once to the top, and gives a total 

 increase of 594 lb., a result which has never been obtained 

 any season on any of the manured plots, and only exceeded by 

 the sheep receiving i lb. of cake per day on Plot i in 1907 and 

 1908. In the third month the sheep on Plot 2 averaged an 

 increase of 20 -i lb. per sheep, beating the sheep on Plot i, 

 getting a pound of cake, which averaged 18 lb. per sheep." 



