of Salt in IJorlicii/lurc 69 



able Sir John Sinclair, in a valuable paper which he has lately 

 published, thus explains the operation of the salt. " Salt," 

 says he, " destroys vermin in the ground, by making them void 

 the contents of their bodies, such evacuations being too power- 

 ful for them to withstand. It has," he adds, " this additional 

 advantage, that the vermin thus become food for those very 

 plants which otherwise they would have destroyed." 



Tlie eminent John Evelyn, the celebrated author oiSylva and 

 other interesting works, and who himself was very zealous in 

 the improvement of the art of horticulture, had learned the 

 effect of common salt in destroying slugs, worms, and other 

 creeping vermin, as appears from a paper in the first volume 

 of the Practical Husbandman and Planter, 8vo. 1733, page 58 ; 

 but it does not appear that he had regularly einployed it for 

 that purpose. 



From an Essay on Plantership, published by Mr. Samuel 

 Martin of the Island of Antigua, it appears that common salt 

 has been employed in the West India Islands for the destruction 

 of grubs and insects. ** Soils," says he, " which are subject to 

 the grub, and must be fertilized by common dung, which is a 

 proper nest for the mother beetle to deposit its eggs, should be 

 well impregnated with the brine of dissolved salt, after the 

 dung is first cut up ; two large hogsheads of salt will make 

 brine enough for a dung-pan of fifty feet square. This cure for 

 the grub is a late discovery, for which I am obliged to a judi- 

 cious planter, and which I have tried with success." 



" A land-surveyor of high character in my neighbourhood," 

 says the Right Honourable Lord Kenyon, in his evidence de- 

 livered before the Board of Trade, " considers that the use of 

 salt would be likely to be very valuable in destroying the slug, 

 wire-worm, snail, Sfc, which often destroy even whole crops. 

 He also well remembers that salt was used largely in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the higher and lower Wiches in Cheshire, before 

 the duties were raised to their present height." 



This is confirmed by a writer in Dr. Rees* Cyclopedia, under 

 the article " Salt," who says that " in Cheshire and other 

 counties, they make a great use of the water of iheir salt springs 



