1922] HASKINS: PHOSPHORIC ACID IN BASIC SLAG 317

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON VEGETATION TESTS ON THE

AVAILABILITY OF PHOSPHORIC ACID IN BASIC SLAG.
By H. D. HASKINS (Agricultural Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass.),
Chairman.

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Your committee regrets its inability to make a final report on the
results of cooperative field and pot experiments with basic slag phos-
phate. In apologizing for this apparent lethargy, the present chairman
would point out the great difficulty in obtaining reliable data in a short
time on the activity of different phosphates through the medium of
field experiments. On fields which are not noticeably deficient in phos-
phorus compounds, several years of preliminary experiments are neces-
sary in fitting the soil for a final test. In other words, a soil must be
exhausted in active phosphoric acid compounds, as well as abundantly
supplied with all other necessary plant food constituents, before it can
furnish reliable data as to the phosphoric acid availability of the differ-
ent phosphates employed in the experiment. The same is true, of
course, in pot experiments, although many times a limited amount of
soil exhausted in phosphoric acid may be secured from some local experi-
mental field. Then, too, during the past several years many agri-
cultural experiment station workers have been engaged in the business
of war, and it has been impossible to carry on many activities outside
of the regular routine of station .work.
It is apparent from a somewhat hasty examination of the data at
hand that final reports have been received from the several experi-
menters who undertook this cooperative work. Nine pot and five field
experiments have been conducted in various parts of the country and
your committee is of the opinion that from some of the pot work at
least very definite and positive results will be secured as to the activity
of the phosphoric acid in basic slag phosphates. In conclusion, your
committee asks an extension of time for another year in order to formu-
late a final report.
Adopted.
It was moved, seconded and adopted that the committee be con-
tinued.
The meeting adjourned at 1 p. m. to reconvene at 2 p. m.