On Salt as a Manure, &c. i J 



ject amongst practical farmers ? Nothing, indeed, can be 

 more contradictory than the diiferent reports that have been, 

 made on the effects of salt, as a manure, by those who have 

 even brought it to the test of actual experiment. As there 

 is no reason to question the veiacity of the reporters, we 

 must look for the grounds of their disagreement in some 

 predominating circumstance or other, which at the time 

 escaped their observation. Indeed, the success or failure 

 of an agricultural experiment depends so frequently on 

 causes which can neither be controlled nor foreseen, and 

 so foreign from those which were expected to operate, that 

 it is not to be wondered at if the repetition of the very same 

 experiment gives oftentimes a different result. 



As it is not the business of this paper to support a theory, 

 but to detail what has been practised ; not to contend for 

 an opinion, but to state facts; the few observations which 

 may be hazarded will be such only as are required merely 

 in explanation of occurrences as they arise. I shall endea- 

 vour to give, therefore, as simple a relation as possible of 

 the experiments I have tried, to ascertain the advantages or 

 disadvantages which may attend the use of salt as a manure, 

 and also when mixed with the food of animals. 



It may be necessary, first of all, to premise, that the soil 

 on which my experiments were tried is a ferruginous sand, 

 brought to a due texture and consistence by a liberal cover- 

 ing of pond mud. Of this soil, in its improved state I 

 mean, by the accession of pond mud (for, having been used 

 merely as a nursery for raising forest trees previous to these 

 experiments, the nursery-man had not thought it necessary 

 to make use of any other manure), the following is the 

 analysis ; 



Grains. 



400 grains gave of siliceous sand of different degrees 

 of fineness about _ _ _ 280 



Of finely divided matter, which appeared in the fotm 



of clay - - - . 104 



Loss in water - - - - iQ 



400 



The lOi grains of finely divided matter contained of 



carbonate of lime - - - 18 



Of oxide of iron - - _ _ 7 



Loss by incineration (most probably from vegetable 

 decomposing matter) - - - I7 



The remainder principally silex and alumine. 

 Vol. 23. No. 8y. Oct. 1805. B There 



