270 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



such an effect upon the manure that it enables tlie niangohl to take it up. 

 Put into those drills well deconiposed manure, provided with a certain supply 

 of salt, the refuse of the beef-packers or salt fish dealers; any kind of salt 

 will answer the purpose. We used to buy it for six or seven cents a bushel; 

 you cannot i^et it as cheap now ; but get it as cheap as you can and put it in. 

 Then have those drills smoothed a little on the top, and sow your seed as early 

 as you can. Be sure and have it well covered. * * * You can get a crop 

 of from 1,000 to 1,200 bushels to the acre. Much larger crops have been 

 raised. [Pp. 1G5-6.] 



Tu the meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture at Pitts- 

 burg, in 1874, Mr. Lewis, of Ilerkimer county, N. Y., was invited to speak 

 on root culture. He said : *'I have been using some of the refuse salt from the 

 salt works at Syracuse, this year, and I think that for every four or five bush- 

 els sown, I have got ten additional tons of beets. I have sown about four or 

 five bushels per acre of this refuse salt, and as near as I can estimate, the dif- 

 ference between the crop when it was sown and when it was not, it has given 

 me just about ten tons per acre. It is Avonderfnl. I do not know that it 

 would ever do it again. [Keport of Agriculture of Mass., 1873, 14, pp. 318-9.] 



In the 28th volume of Transactions of N. Y. State Agricultural Society, 

 Geo. Geddes has an essay on salt. Relative to the expediency of using salt as 

 a manure, experiments are mentioned with diverse and sometimes opposing 

 results. This is doubtless owing to the variations in quantity used, the manner 

 of using it, and difference in composition of the soils on which it has been 

 tried. After weighing all the facts in the case, Mr. Geddes comes to the f ollow- 



ing conclusions: " Some soils have enough salt in them, and more does in- 



ig V,VJ.JV>1HLJ.UIIU . fJV/^li^ ijyj^.^ Ai^.,V^ V^^.v^v^.Q. 



jury. English farmers scatter salt over their fields at the rate of two 

 two bushels per acre, with success, and this quantity may be '^enough. Some 

 men have greatly puzzled themselves over the fact that light dressings are 

 beneficial, while heavy ones do positive injury, and those have finally said, as 

 in small quantities is known to accelerate the putrefaction of ancient substan- 

 ces, and when in larger doses to retard it, and thus is useful in assisting the 

 organs of digestion in men and carnivorous animals. * * So it may aid in 

 reducing vegetable matter in the soil into food for plants, if a]-)plied in small 

 quantities. [Pieport of Dep. of Agriculture, 1870, p. 405.] 



It need not excite our wonder that lands along the sea coast should not 

 receive any benefit from the salt applied as manure, when Dr. Madden informs 

 ns that ''rainfall at Penicuik contains so much common salt as to convey 640 

 lbs. to every acre in the year." [Johnston's Elm. Agric. Chem., 5e., p. 21G.] 



This is an extreme case, and the average of rain on the sea coast does not 

 contain so much salt. It is only quoted to show that a considerable amount 

 of salt is carried to the land in rain. Such lands may be found along the sea 

 coast, and where salt springs appear. Other lands are greatly benefited by 

 light dressings of salt. 



BENEFITS CLAIMED FOR AGRICULTURAL USE OF SALT. 



A very large number of persons claim that salt is a benefit to oats and barley 

 by strengthening the stalk and preventing the grain from lodging, brightening 

 the stalk, making the berry plumper and brighter, and by increasing the 

 amount of grain as well as improving the quality. It is claimed that mangolds, 

 beets, cabbages, asparagus, and the other class of sea coast plants are greatly 

 benefited by manuring with salt. Mr. Ware, in the Massachusetts report for 

 1877, says : "Salt is a very valuable fertilizer for onions, for carrots, for man- 



