316 Mr. Johnson on Saline Manures. 



I have elsewhere endeavoured to advocate the cause of salt 

 as a manure at much length, and it has now become the most 

 extensively employed saline agent in the agriculturist's pos- 

 session. 



Common salt is most probably a manure in several ways, 

 for it not only absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, and 

 enters into the composition of the plant, but it kills vermin, 

 worms, &c. 



From a long course of experiments with this manure, I have 

 no doubt of its great usefulness and importance to the farmer ; 

 although, like all other manures, it requires care and some 

 consideration before it is employed ; from a want of these 

 necessary requisites, many an erroneous experiment has been 

 made ; many an unsuccessful experimenter sets himself up for 

 a Sir Oracle, with regard to saline manures, with all the con- 

 fidence of ignorance ; and I am sorry to say many are thus 

 decided in their opinions who ought to know better than to 

 judge a most important scientific question by experiments 

 carelessly begun, neglected during their progress, and perhaps 

 forgotten amid the bustle of harvest towards their conclusion*. 



Salt has been hitherto most generally employed in agri- 

 culture upon the light or barley soils of this country, in the 

 proportion of from fifteen to twenty bushels per acre, with 

 decided advantage, as Vvell as upon all kinds of grass lands. 



It has been employed, however, upon grass lands with more 

 general apparent success than with any other crop ; for what- 

 ever other opportunities for careful experiments the farmer 

 may have neglected, yet the fact that his cattle prefer the 

 salted part of the field to any other portion of the same load 

 is always too glaring a fact to escape his notice. He feels that 

 there must be something more than usual in the salted grass; 

 and having recollected that he salted that very identical spot, 

 and further having reflected that cattle generally know what 

 is best for them, he hence very decidedly infers that *' there 

 is some good in salt for grass." 



The market gardeners, and other growers of early vegetables, 

 may perhaps make some use of the following experiment. The 



* See my Essay on Salt, second edition ; and observations on the employment of 

 salt in agriculture, fifth edition. 



