352 A Letter to the Farmers and 
structions. By an act of parliament passed in the 57th year of 
George the Third, it was enacted that the farmer might receive 
salt for the purpose of mixing with the food of sheep or cattle, 
at the reduced duty of five shillings per bushel, or ten shillings 
per cwt., such salt to be employed only and for no other purpose 
than feeding sheep or cattle; but before any such salt could be 
obtained, it was necessary to give a bond, with sufficient sureties, 
to the satisfaction of the Commissioners of His Majesty’s Excise, 
in the penalty of six times the full duty upon such salt; and no 
further quantity of salt could be obtained, however much the 
cattle, after being long accustomed to it, might require its use, 
until the bond given on the delivery of every prior quantity should 
be discharged. 
It was also enacted that before such bond could be discharged, 
a certificate must be given, declaring the whole of such rock-salt 
to have been used and consumed in mixing with the food of sheep 
or cattle, and for no other purpose whatever; and that no such 
certificate should discharge any such bond, unless the collector 
of excise should, upon inquiry, be satisfied of the truth thereof, 
-and should underwrite the same upon the said certificate. The 
act declared also, that if such certificate should not be signed 
and delivered to such collector before the expiration of thirteen 
months from the time of the bond being given, or should in any 
respect be false, or any of the salt should be consumed in any 
other manner than ir feeding sheep or cattle, the penalty of the 
bond should be forfeited. 
Under such penalties and restrictions, is it at all surprising 
that salt has not been more generally employed for the purposes 
above enumerated; especially when it is recollected that, even 
under all these disadvantages, the farmer could not use a single 
bushel of salt for curing his hay, for steeping his seed-wheat, or 
for manuring his land, until he had paid the enormous duty of 
thirty pounds per ton, which of itself amounted to a prohibition ? 
I have, however, great pleasure in being able to congratulate 
you that an act passed both houses of parliament on the fifth of 
June last, to repeal the most vexatious of these restrictions, and 
to impose a low duty upon such rock-salt as should be hereafter 
delivered for any purpose of agriculture, as well as for feeding 
sheep or cattle. 
Under this act of parliament, salt may now be had at the re- 
duced duty of two shillings and sixpence per bushel, or five shil- 
lings per ewt.* for any of the following purposes, viz. for ete 
with 
* Rock-salt is not worth more than eight or ten shillings per ton at the 
pits of Northwich, and it may be put on board a vessel on the canal for about 
five shillings per ton more. Persons may be supplied with any quantity of 
salt on the best terms, and agreeably to the regulations of the late act of 
parliament, 
