as an Agricultural Agent, 34t^ 



Ingatestone in Essex, and a host of others ; but to the unpre- 

 judiced agriculturist one part will be sufficient. 



The successful progress made in the introduction of salt, 

 for live stock, will encourage its friends to persevere in the 

 course they have so well begun ; for even the use of salt for 

 domestic animals, of which hardly a farmer now fails to avail 

 himself, at least occasionally, even this question has had to 

 encounter the most profound ignorance in all shapes ; and the 

 vengeance of the magistrates has been hurled against those who 

 have used it to improve the condition of the horses entrusted 

 to their care. 



About sixty years since, some honest farmers' servants in 

 Hampshire were brought before a magistrate at Winchester, 

 charged by their ignorant master with the horrid crime of 

 giving his cart-horses salt in their corn. *' I should not have 

 discovered it," said their master, " had not my horses gro^vn 

 so faty and their coats become so sleek lately." " Salt for 

 horses!" exclaimed the wise administrator of the law : "can 

 any thing be more poisonous ? The villains intended, no doubt, 

 *to make them full of humours and greese ! Let them be com- 

 mitted to the Bridewell for a month !" 



These men worked for a Mr. Earle of King's Worthy, near 

 Winchester. 



The employment of salt in horticulture has been on a veiy 

 small scale ; but the experiments hitherto made are decidedly 

 in its favour. 



I am indebted to my brother, Mr. George Johnson, for several 

 important experiments in the kitchen-garden with salt : they 

 were made with much care, and I can vouch for their cor- 

 rectness. 



The soil was composed of 



Stones and gravel principally siliceous . . . . ^^^1.28 5 



Vegetable -fibres 1^1 



Soluble matters, principally vegetable extract .... 30 



Carbonate of lime and magnesia 18 



Oxide of iron 4 



Animal and vegetable matter 10 



Alumina 45 



Silica 40 



Loss 1 



100 



