4H 



Basic Slag for Poor Pastures. [oct., 



flavour ; when fully grown they preserve their sweetness with a 

 tinge of bitterness, but the aromatic taste is more pronounced. 



The soil apparently most suited to the cultivation of this 

 variety is damp or even wet, the cultivation being similar to 

 that of the ordinary potato, except that in order to avoid drying 

 the soil ridging is not desirable. Harvesting is easy owing to the 

 position of the tubers, and owing to the abundance of the foliage 

 a single hoeing is sufficient. The yield obtained is apparently 

 very large, being equivalent on the small area planted to about 

 40 tons per acre. The tubers are much appreciated by stock. 



Although the efficacy of basic slag as a remedy for poor or 

 deteriorated pasture may be regarded as a generally recog- 

 nised fact, enquiries are frequently made 



Basic Slag for f arme rs respecting- the soils to which 



Poop Pastures. . / & . v 



this manure is specially applicable, the 



time at which it should be applied, and the quantity necessary 

 to produce the desired effect. The following account of the 

 results obtained from a series of experiments with basic slag 

 which have been carried on during the past nine years by the 

 Bath and West of England Society in the counties of Somerset, 

 Devon, Dorset, and Sussex, has been furnished to the Board by 

 Mr. F. J. Rowbotham, Botanical Visitor to the Bath and West 

 of England Society. The sites for these experiments, it should 

 be mentioned, were selected with a view both to their absolute 

 need of improvement and their fitness as representative types of 

 large and important areas, whilst the soils embraced such 

 varieties as come within the category of ordinary soils of 

 pasture land. 



The evidence derived from these experiments points con- 

 clusively to the fact that the renovating capabilities of basic 

 slag are most strikingly manifested in the case of those stiff, reten- 

 tive clays which, from their coldness and their liability to become 

 water-logged during the winter and to parch in the summer, are 

 frequently the despair of the farmer. At the same time, ex- 

 cellent results have been obtained from medium land, consisting 



