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\y An experimenial Essa?/ on Salt as a Manure, and as 

 ^a Condiment mixed uAlk the Food of Animals. By the 

 Rev. Edmund Caktwright, of Hob urn*. 



Were the beneficial effects of salt as a manure to be 

 once fairly ascertained, there can be no doubt but the wis- 

 dom of the legislature would devise some means by which, 

 without prejudice to the revenue, the farmer might apply 

 it to the purposes of agricultiu-e. 



At present the use of salt as a manure is a subject on 

 which the public opinion is much divided ; its advocates, 

 reasoning from the striking effects of salt water on the 

 marshes which are occasionally irrigated by the sea at 

 spring tides, conclude that the fertilizing virtue of such 

 irrigation is owing to its saline quality, without taking into 

 consideration the quantity of animal and vegetable matter 

 which sea water (particularly near the coast, and where 

 rivers disembogue themselves) must necessarily hold in so- 

 lution. 



Those who maintain a contrary opinion, considering salt 

 merely as an antiseptic, satisfy themselves that it is impos- 

 sible that any thing can be friendly to vegetation which re- 

 tards putrefaction ; a process indispensal)le in substances 

 that are to be the food of plants. To get over this diffi- 

 culty, it has been conjectured, nay, there have not been 

 wanting those (and of great name too) who have even at- 

 tempted to prove, that salt in small quantities accelerates, 

 as in large quantities it is known to resist, putrefaction ; a 

 doctrine to which, however, I shall not willingly yield my 

 assent, till I can be persuaded that effects are not, in all 

 cases, proportionate to their causes. The operation of 

 every cause is, and must be, uniform; and when, to ap- 

 pearance, it is not so, some other cause obtrudes itself, 

 too subtile for our observation, which, operating at the 

 same time with the primary cause, joins in giving a result, 

 which not being able to account for, we consider as ano- 

 malous. 



That theorists should be at variance with each other ig 

 not to be wondered at ; for, having the wide field of ima- 

 gination and conjecture before them to expatiate in, it is 

 reasonable to conclude, indeed it is unavoidable, that some 

 of them must lose their way. But what shall we say to the 

 disagreement and inconsistency which prevail on this sub- 



• From the Commw.ications to the Bonrd of Agriculture, which adjudged 

 to the author the gold medal for this essay. 



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