BASIC SLAG

Evening Star, Issue 19788, 11 February 1928, Page 19

BASIC SLAG

There are very few crops in the kitchen garden which do not benefit by the use of basic slag. Fruit tree quarters may be given .a top-dressing at the rate of four ounces per square yard, and when succeeded by half that quantity of kainit, and, if necessary, a similar amount of sudphate of ammonia in spring, a very complete and economical fertiliser wall have been applied. The use of basic slag on lawns, however, is not recommended, as it tends to increase the growth of clover at the expense of the fine grasses. Where farmyard manure is difficult to obtain, much may be done to eke out the scanty supply with these slow-acting chemicals, but when applying them they should he left on the surface and not dug into the soil, as the winter rains wash them down out of reach. Where club-root has been troublesome, these artificial manures appear less likely to spread and encourage this disease than manure which may have been obtained from a tainted source, while the application of lime, also on the surface, after digging, is a great help in combating this enemy of the kitchen gardener.