90 [Senate 



the best ^vheat growing districts of our country. In the minds of 

 many, a senseless prejudice has existed against plaster, on the ground 

 that it the more speedily exhausts the soil, and that the heavy crops 

 at first obtained were the price of ruined farms. It is doubtless true 

 that the man who uses plaster on his farm, who takes from his soils 

 all he can get, and returns nothing to them, wull soon find his soils 

 worthless enough. He who intends to farm it in this way, should 

 avoid plaster; but let any farmer alternate wheat and clover; hus- 

 band and apply his manures; feed off his clover in his fields, or to his 

 stock in their stalls; let him not spare his grass seeds in seeding, or 

 his plaster in dressing, and his farm will never run down. Such men 

 need not fear plaster. 



Common salt is an active and valuable manure, and has been used 

 successfully as such, in all parts of the world where it can readily be 

 obtained. In England, the pickings or impure salt is used for 

 this purpose; and many experiments are on record to show that 

 the effect is most marketl^and decisive. The following is one of a 

 series of experiments instituted by Mr. Sinclair, to test the value of 

 salt as a manure. The soil was light and gravelly. 



No. 1. Soil without any manure for 4 years. Produce per acre, 13 bushels 26 lbs. 



2. Soil manured with stable dung to the previous crop (potatoes,) . 26 do. 52 do. 



3. Soil with 5 bush, of salt per acre, and no other manure for 4 years, 26 do. 12 do. 



In the opinion of Mr. Sinclair, the effect of salt as a manure was to 

 lessen the produce of straw as compared with other manures, and to 

 increase the weight of the grain. 



Prof. Johnston has done more than any other person to extend the 

 use of salt as a manure, by giving to the world his excellent Essay on 

 salt used on soils, and the mass of experiments he has recorded. It 

 appears that salt in small proportions, promotes the decomposition of 

 animal and vegetable substances; that it destroys vermin and kills 

 weeds; that it is a direct constituent of some plants, and therefore ne- 

 cessary to their perfection; that all cultivated plants of marine ori- 

 gin contain it, asparagus for instance; and that all such succeed bet- 

 ter when watered with salt water, than when deprived of it; that salt 

 preserves vegetables from injury by sudden transitions in temperature, 

 salted soils not freezing as readily as those to which salt has not been 

 applied; and that it renders the earth more capable of absorbing the 

 moisture of the atmosphere. When salt is applied as a manure, it 

 may be used in quantities from six to fifteen bushels per acre; al- 

 though some have gone as high as 50 bushels. Farmers, however, 



