SOLON ROBINSON, 1851 457 



they left winter quarters in the spring, until brought up 

 again in the fall; and I never have been able to see the 

 least difference between such, and those that had all they 

 desired every day through the season. Certainly, better 

 beef never was eaten than I have butchered, entirely 

 grass fed, without salt. 



I had always been very careful to salt my sheep just as 

 much as they would eat, and considered it quite necessary 

 to their health, until it so happened, one summer, that the 

 biggest part of the common flock came to be owned by my 

 neighbors, who thought as my sheep always got plenty of 

 salt, it would be no more than neighborly to let theirs 

 eat with them. But I thought proper to let the whole lot 

 try the experiment of a long feed upon fresh grass, and 

 I certainly never have had a more healthy flock than I 

 did that year. There are several other observations I 

 made, which have inclined me to the opinion that cattle 

 and sheep can do without salt, just as well as wild deer, 

 goats, and buffaloes ; that the taste for salt which all ani- 

 mals manifest, is like some of the apparent natural tastes 

 of numbers of the human family — more artificial than 

 natural — more acquired than necessary. 



It is a fact worthy of notice, that the Rocky-Mountain 

 hunters who had been used to the stimulant of salt all 

 their previous lives, and looked upon it as an actual neces- 

 sary, instead of a luxury, have not only learned to do 

 without it, but actually grow fat and enjoy better health 

 than they did in civilised life. It is, therefore, a mooted 

 question, whether salt is at all necessary for man or beast. 



Solon Robinson. 



The Traveller. — No. 5. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 10:147-49; May, 1851] 



[January ?, 1851] 



From Charleston to Savannah, some 160 miles, the 

 passage is made by very comfortable steamers in about 

 twelve hours. Savannah is one of the best-planned towns 



