Improvement of Poor Meadow Land

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 August 1915, Page 2

Improvement of Poor Meadow Land

Occupiers of poor meadow clay land may note with advantage the results of some experiments made at Saxmimdham in .Suffolk. The land on which the experiment was conducted is described as "exceedingly poor clay land." and the object of the test was to see by what method it could be improved with profit.

On one portion of the land during the past thirteen yeans basic slag has been applied in three dressings at the rate of 10 cwt per acre, the total cost of the dressings being 6'2s (id. per acre. The result has been to increase the average crop of hay from ( JJ cwt. per acre to 28 cwt., with a total proiit over the whole period of £23 12s.

The result is eloquent testimony of the value of slag, applied at interval ol some years, in liberal dressings on heavy land and the statement in the report seems quite justified thai "the remarkable effect of slag can hardly be over-estimated."

The point was brought out that the iiddilion of kainit to the slag reduced the profit, the probable explanation being that such heavy Ja ml con-tains a sufficient supply of potash for tlio requirements of many crops. The use of kainit on (such heavy tenacious land Iki-s the further drawback .that the potash suites have a tendency to "pan" the surface. The lime m slag helps to liberate the natural stock of potash in heavy soils; hence when slag is urced in such soils, the application of potash becomes less necessary. The benefit of a big slag dressing was clearly shown by the above .results. Another experiment was made to test the relative advantage of smaller but more frequent dressings to the acre. The result of this was a smaller total proiit. Tliifi bears out the figures obtained from ;v large initial dressing of slag than from two smaller dressings. The addition of nitrate to the slag has tslightly increased the proiit.