THE FARM.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 1 May 1914, Page 7

THE FARM.

NEW PACTS ABOUT SLAG

Basic slag has undoubtedly proved itself the most generally useful fertiliser yet introduced into New Zealand, for it not only appears to suit a wide variety of land, but its effects are lasting. Although basic slag has been used for far long3r and to a much larger extent in the Old Country that it has out here, it would seem as if its many good qualities are only now commencing to be fully realised. In this connection an English agricultural paper remarks : —Gradually increased knowledge and experience seem to'ba#wi!ening the field of usefulness of basic slag until there really seems to be no class of grass land which it cannot improve At first, we thought that it was of value only on clay land pastures. Then we found that it needed onlj to be used in conjunction with a potash manure to make it almost equally effective on most light land pastures. That left only a little land here and there on which slag did not seem to work f Q r some reason or other. Now a thoroughly practical" farmer and writer has come out with the assertion that humus is the. lacking element where either slag alone or slag with potash fail to act. In most cases he therefore gives a dressing of farmyard manure in addition to the basic slag, and finds that this enables the slag to get to work. One would think that there must be^ humus from decaying roots and herbage on any old pasture, but the fact remains that a thoroughly practical man has found a dressing of dung necessary in exceptional cases to enable the slag to work. We believe, however, that there is scarcely any grass land that will not respond to slag' with potash if not to slag alone.

Here is another new fact about slag told to us by another prominent farmer. Trials on his heavy clay land have convinced him that he irrist use as much as a ton per acre to give him a result. Less is of little use ; more gives no corresponding improvement. (This is borne out in a great measure by our experience in- this country. At' the Ruakura State Fferm, half-ton dressings gave much better results than smaller quantities applied at shorter periods). In subsequent ye a rs, after, such a lavish dressing, when the land calls a?ain for help, quite a light dressing of slag answers the purpose. He assumes that there must be something in the soil that needs an extra heavy dressing to overcome >v. Whatever the true explanation may be, the fact remains that this hardheaded farmer enthusiastically lresses his pastures at the rate of a ton an acre of basic slag and persuades his neighbours to do the same, with excellent results. These suggesr.i-ms may be worth something to any who have failed to get the response tiiev hoped for from their manurn-