Basic Slag on Clay Land. 



209 



an extremely dry one, there were practically no results worth 

 noticing until the commencement of the present year. 



The fact that the results only became strikingly apparent in 

 the third year of the experiments points, the reporter thinks, 

 to the following conclusions, viz. : — (i) On certain soils 

 the full effects of basic slag are not apparent until a consider- 

 able period has elapsed; but (2) the development of these 

 effects may be, and probably is, hastened or retarded by the 

 condition of the season following the application of the 

 manure ; and (3) that it may perhaps be assumed that the 

 beneficial effects of the slag are not only maintained over a 

 very considerable period, but that there is also a marked 

 tendency to increase observable in these effects from year to 

 year, such as would seem to point to a gradual improvement 

 in the general conditions of growth, and probably also to 

 the production of a condition of food-availability in the soil 

 which is specially favourable to the growth of leguminous 

 plants. 



The stimulation of the clovers and their allies would 

 doubtless be accompanied by, if it did not exactly imply, a 

 discouragement of the worthless weeds, such as has been 

 observed in several of the sites. As regards the effect of the 

 basic slag upon the grasses, the evidence at present derived 

 from these experiments, and from those conducted by the 

 Society, is held to be not quite so conclusive as in the case of 

 the leguminous herbage ; but it does not appear that the stimu- 

 lation of clovers has been, in any case, at the expense of the 

 better grasses of the pasture. 



The following interesting notes by the Botanical Visitor 

 relate to two or three of the more notable examples of 

 these trials : — 



Lillingto7i. — The first field chosen for trial upon this farm 

 has a stiff clay top-soil, resting upon the forest marble of 

 the oolitic series, and is a typical example of the rough 

 upland pasture met with in this neighbourhood. It is in 

 great part overrun by brambles, and the soil is mainly held 

 by such weeds as hawk's-beard, hoary rib-grass, or plantain 

 [Plantago medta), common bird's-foot, field daisy, carnation- 

 grass, etc. A few grasses are present in varying propor- 



O 



