On Muriate of Soda* 101 



In the interior parts of the American continent where 

 salt is scarce, or does not exist naturally at all, and where 

 no saline quality is imparted to the atmosphere by the lakes 

 of fresh water, the condition of domestic animals is very 

 different ; they pine for want of this stimulus, and their 

 suffering and leamiess arc not confined to such kine, sheep 

 and horses as may have been carried thither from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the ocean, but obtain in those which have 

 been raised in inland situations, and have never been ac- 

 customed to the influence of a maritime atmosphere. 



Thus this appetite for salt would appear to be instinctive; 

 and from the following facts it can scarcely be denied to be 

 highly nourishing and wholesome, whatever speculative 

 men who live and write near the ocean may allege to the 

 contrary. 



Experience has proved that cows do not give so much 

 milk when they are denied an allowance of salt as when 

 they are supplied with a due proportion of it. This is so 

 notorious, that the wives of fiirmers who keep dairies can 

 discover, by the lessening of the quantity of milk, that the 

 cows are in want of salt ; and this shrinking takes place 

 merely from the withholding of the salt, although the water* 

 pasture and other circumstances should remain the same. 



Not only does the milk of cows vary in quantity, but 

 undergoes a change in quality, by the operation of salt on 

 their constitutions. The milk is thereby rendered more apt 

 to curdle; less cream rises on its surface; and it is better 

 adapted to the making of cheese. The cheese-makers of 

 the interior country find that the salting their cows is an 

 important matter in the dairy process; and it has been sup- 



Sosed that insular situations, such as Block-Island, Great 

 ritain, &c, &c. were indebted for the excellence of their 

 cheese, partly to the saline quality of their atmosphere. 



The calves of cows treated with muriate of soda are better 

 nourished and more thrifty on that account. It is suffi- 

 ciently understood that they make a more vigorous and hand- 

 some stock. 



So much for salt as respects the dairy. — Its effects are 

 scarcely less considerable in fattening oxen and other neat 

 cattle, and preparing them for the butcher. Without salt, 

 give them as nuich hay, pasture, and grain, as you please, 

 and they remain meagre and unthrifty. To make the fat ac- 

 cumulate in them, and to give them plumpness and rotun- 

 dity, it is necessary to treat them with muriate of soda. Its 

 operation is so beneficial, as well to reward the owner for his 

 G 3 expense 



