22 On Salt as a Manure, and as a Condiment 



its weight ; which shows it contained a great deal of vege- 

 table matter. The residuum principally a mixture of alu- 

 minous and siliceous earths, coloured red by oxide of iron, 

 and containing very little calcareous matter. There wett; 

 no indications of either gypsum or phosphate of lime. 



July 6, 1804, the pieces set apart for each set of experi- 

 ments weie respectively sown with turnips and buck-wheat. 



On the i26th, Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, G, 7, 19, 20, 21, 22, 

 24, 25, showed little or no marks of vegetation. The re- 

 mainder were merely in the seed-leaf. 



On the l6th of August four only were alive, and in 

 rough leaf, namely, 



Ko. 12. Salt and lime. 



13. Salt, lime, and sulphuric acid. 



14. Salt, lime, peat. 



10. Salt, lime, gypsum, peat. 



These four maintained a sickly existence till the middle 

 of September; shortly after which they all disappeared. — 

 N. B. '{"he appearances of the turnips and buck-wheat were 

 so nearly uniform, I have not thought it necessary to notice 

 the triHiug variations between 'hem, which could not have 

 been done without entering into a minute detail, equally 

 tedious and uninteresting. 



Though nothing decisive can probably be drawn from 

 these two sets of experiments respecting the advantages or 

 disadvantages of salt as a manure,, on such a soil as I have 

 described, because other manures of acknowledged efficacy 

 shared the same fate v/ith the salt ; yet this inference, how- 

 ever, may be drawn from them (and that not an unimpor- 

 tant one), namely, that a due texture and consistence in 

 the soil IS as necessary to the existence and health of vege- 

 tables, as the pabulum they are sustained by ; and this ap- 

 pears evidently by the superioritv, such as it was, of those 

 plants where the manure contributed in any degree to im- 

 prove that texture and consistence. 



Adjoining to the place where these experiments were 

 tiled is a field, which fully confirms this observation. 

 Within these few years, a great part of it was in a state 

 of uncultivated nature, equally barren as the spot I have 

 been speaking of; it is, however, now brought into culti- 

 vatit)n, and into a decent state of fertility, chiefly from its 

 texture having been improved by a thick coating of marly 

 clav- 



In trying the effects of salt, when mixed with the food 

 of animals, I have made no experiments on sheep, as I did 

 not apprehend that a few limited experiments would either 



throw 



