CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1925, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

STEEL IN SLAG. (To the Editor.) Sli’/—We read with interest in the Daily News of the 18th instant your report of the meeting of the Farmers’ Union and the reference made by Air. Hoskin to the presence of pieces of steel in basic slag. This matter has engaged our attention for several years past, Our experience being that the impurities are much more in evidence In Continental than in English slag, and we have made inquiries in England and on the Continent, and are informed that the pieces of steel are caused by the sieves which are used in order to obtain the desired fineness occassionally breaking. Slag, as we know, is very heavy material, and the sieves, in order to produce the necessary fineness, are made of very fine material, tho consequence being that at times they are not equal to the strain, and the sieve breaks, and before it Is noticed a considerable quantity of lumps of steel may have got into some of the bags. Even in English slag, we are informed, that at times it is almost impossible to prevent this occurring. We have made continued representations to our principals, and they assure us that they have taken every possible care to prevent this kind of thing happening. In many cases, they have personally visited the works and arranged for a stricter supervision in order that there may be no grounds for complaint, but in spite of all these precautions, every year we find that a percentage of our clients receive slag’ in which these impurities are to be found. The consequence is that in several cases damage lias resulted to their drills. In cases, however, where this has been reported to us, we have made it a practice to replace the broken drill parts free of charge, and although this amounted to quite a considerable sum during tlie season, we have felt that it is only fair that our clients should not be called upon to suffer loss through what was really no fault of their own. Some farmers tell us that by using a small length of fine wire-netting over the manure box before emptying the slag into the drill all pieces of iron large enough to cause damage to tlie manure feed are eliminated.—We are, etc., NEWTON KING, LTD.*