350: A Letter to the Farmers and 
fits which result from its employment in all the various modes of 
culture that are adopted in this country, will-require several long 
series of experiments, especially as some of. the evidence given 
before the committee of the House of Commons was unsatisfac- 
tory and contradictory; but the advantages which have arisen. 
from giving salt to sheep and cattle are so determinate and selfs. 
evident,. that there appears to me to be nothing to prevent every 
farmer from immediately adopting the practice. 
The most undeniable evidence has been afforded, that com- 
mon salt uniformly promotes digestion in horses and cattle, and 
that this occasions them to make a rapid progress in fattening. . 
It has also been found, that in feeding with chaff or cut straw, a 
larger quantity of this cheap and ordinary food can be given when 
sprinkled with ‘salt than can be administered in any other way ; 
and that as the filling the stomachs of cattle while fattening is a 
circumstance of the greatest importance, a very large portion of 
chaff, if seasoned with salt, may be given with the utmost ad- 
vantage to the growth and health of the animals. Thus, every 
experimental grazier knows that an abundance of very ordinary 
food, if eaten with relish, will fatten cattle much socuer when 
given with asmall allowance of substantial provender, than better 
food alone in a moderate quantity. There is, indeed, hardly any 
food that can be offered to cattle, which, if mixed with salt, will 
not be eaten with eagerness. Hence, nothing can be of more 
importance to a practical grazier than to know how to obtain 
this valuable saline mineral substance, at a cheap rate, and with 
little difficulty. 
it was given in evidence last year, before the select committee 
of the House of Commons, that in feeding cattle, fourteen pounds 
of chaff, such as is produced in winnowing corn, and which of 
itself is of little or no value, will, when properly. moistened and 
heated by steam, and nixed with two ounces of salt, save forty- 
two pounds of turnips. Surely this is a most important circum- 
stance-in the ceconomy of a farm. Is it possible that this fact 
should: pass unnoticed ‘by any agriculturist ? 
A friend of mine, in the year 1812, travelled through the 
United States of America, from the state of Massachuset to the 
River Mississippi. He observed that it was usual, throughout 
that extensive district, to put salt within all the staéhis of hay, 
and likewise to sprinkle it among the hay, in the proportion of 
about fourteen pounds of salt to one ton of hay. He says it was 
also a common practice in that country to give salt to sheep and 
cattle, and that he has frequently seen cattle follow a boy a mile 
or more, who held a portion of salt in his hand, tempting the 
animals by showing it to them. ‘The same individual assures - 
me also, that since his return to England he has adopted the 
same 
