MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 271 



golds and for cabbages. I do Dot know that 1 should recommend it for other 

 crops especially. We, in Essex county, use a great deal of salt manure in 

 raising onions, but I do not think that salt is so especially adapted as a fertilizer 

 to onions as to the three crops I have mentioned — carrots, cabbages and man- 

 golds." 



On winter wheat salt has been used, but reports of its iniluenco are conflict- 

 ing; in many instances the increased growth of straw, and the quantity and 

 quality of grain are surprising; in other instances no benefit was observed. 

 We need careful experiments and close observation to detect the grounds of 

 such disparity in reported effects of salt on wheat. 



Salt has been used with Indian corn to kill the cut worm, but he is a tough- 

 skinned worm, and will often withstand an amount of salt that will kill the 

 corn. 



In the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society for 1866 there is an article 

 by Dr. Voelcker, "Field Experiments on Clover Seeds," giving results of 

 experiments with various mineral manures on clover meadows. Dr. Voelcker 

 comes to the conclusion that salt is not beneficial to clover — that under its 

 influence clover will disappear and grasses take its place. 



Mr. Bowditch, in an article on "Manuring Grass Land," in Vol. XIX. of 

 the Journal of the Koyal Agricultural Society, says : "Common salt is included 

 in every manure here recommended, because experience has shown its benefi- 

 cial action upon grass whenever it has been properly applied." [P. 241. 



HOW IS SALT BENEFICIAL AS A MANURE? 



Since soda, if essential in plant growth, is only required in small amounts, 

 and chlorine, though essential for most plants, is still required in only small 

 amounts, and common salt is found in minute quantity in most soils, chemists 

 have asked why salt should be of any benefit as a manure, and from theoretical 

 grounds have been disposed to deny that salt has any value as manure. Yet 

 practical farmers, not having the fear of science before their eyes, have pointed 

 to the increased crops and asked, "How is that?" 



There can be no conflict between practice and science, because science is the 

 classified explanation of practice. I have said enough to show that it is not 

 enough to cause the rejection of a substance as manure to say that it is not 

 " essential " to plant growth. 



Let us see what explanation can be made of the use of salt in agriculture 

 beyond the small amount required for the ash element. 



Prof. May showed that solution of salt would render soluble the ammonia 

 which had entered into insoluble condition in the soil. 



Prof. Atwatcr, in the Conn. Ecport for 1873, says: "Something has been 

 said about the use of ordinary salt as a fertilizer. One important office of the 

 salt is to make soluble and consequently useful to the plant, the materials 

 already locked up, as it were, in the soil. Supposing you have been putting 

 on barnyard manure and other fertilizers. Some of tlie nutritive materials, 

 as for instance potash and phosphoric acid, may perhaps iuive been taken up 

 by the soil, and remain there in a difficultly soluble condition. Furthermore 

 there are in the soil some of these ingredients that were in the original rock 

 of which the soil is made up, and are still, so to say, locked up, or in other 

 words still remain in an insoluble form therein. One effect of salt, as is the 

 case oftentimes with gypsum and lime, is to set loose that potash and phos- 

 phoric acid. You must expect, therefore, in putting on salt, that its chief 

 use will be, not as a direct nutriment to the plant, but rather as a means of 



