536 



SALT. 



Salt. 



quicksilver require 12lbs. of salt; and in making ca- 

 lomel, every Qlbs. of quicksilver require I61bs. of cor- 

 rosive sublimate. 



Patent yellow is also prepared from common salt. 



In the fisheries, in salting provisions for the sea ser- 

 vice, and for exportation, salt is largely employed. For 

 these purposes, however, it should contain no muriate 

 of magnesia, which deliquesces and dissolves the salt. 

 It is always present when salt is made by a rapid eva- 

 poration. 



Butchers, morocco dressers, and skinners, employ it 

 in large quantities. 



Housekeepers employ salt in quantities, of which no 

 accurate estimate can be made. By inquiring of the best 

 bakers in this city, (New York) I find that upon an aver- 

 age throughout the year, 3|lbs. of salt are required for 

 two barrels of flour.or half a pound of salt to every bushel 

 of flour. Hence it may be presumed, that every adult 

 consumes an ounce of salt per week, or three and a 

 quarter pounds per annum in bread only. Thus, then, 

 ten millions of people (our population) consume yearly 

 in bread 32,500,000 Ibs. or 14,500 tons, or 580,360 

 bushels of salt. In England double this quantity would 

 be consumed, since there a pound of salt is used to 

 every bushel of flour. 



Farmers use great quantities in making butter and 

 cheese, and for steeping wheat to prevent smut; for 

 which purpose it proved the best in a trial of four- 

 teen substances, simple and compound. Bishop Wat- 

 son says, that in Northwich alone 3000 tons of salt were 

 annually sold to the farmers of that district. 



In glazing earthen ware much gait is consumed, and 

 it is far preferable to the preparations of lead, which 

 are liable to be dissolved by vinegar, and eaten. In 

 England the manufacturers of earthen ware sometimes 

 used to pay one-twelfth of the real amount of their sales 

 for salt. 



Salt is likewise employed by iron founders in me- 

 tallic cements, and in rendering bar iron very mal- 

 leable. It is used by whitesmiths and cutlers in case- 

 hardening, in tempering files, and some other edge 

 tools ; mixed with other substances for reducing me- 

 tallic ores, assaying minerals, and rendering metals 

 fusible, by the refiners of silver, and to prevent the 

 oxidizement of some metals. It is used to moderate 

 the flame of combustible bodies and is extensively 

 employed by the philosophical and manufacturing 

 chemist, and by the druggist for a variety of pharma- 

 ceutical purposes. 



In horticulture, salt it much used, particularly in 

 England, where its merits are better appreciated than 

 with us. It prevents the depredations ef insects on 

 iruit trees, and when properly applied, protects them 

 from the honey dew. Persons ambitious of having 

 good cyder orchards are advised to dig a small trench 

 a. few yards from each tree, and place within it a few 

 pounds of salt, which, by the rains, &c. is gradually 

 conveyed to the roots,, and produces the most desirable 

 effects. 



In agriculture, I regret to say, salt has not met the 

 attention it merits in this country. In after years, 

 perhaps, when soil becomes more valuable, we too 

 may be driven, as they now are in many parts of Eu- 

 rope, to seek means of rendering bad land productive, 

 and literally leave no stone unturned that can tend to 

 accomplish the object. 



In Europe much has been eaid and written to prove 

 and to disprove the utility of salt as a manure. With- 

 out entering at all into their ideas of the modus ope- 



randi, we may judge from the effects of experiment. 

 I may say, however, that it has been supposed bene- 

 ficial in small quantities, by its tendency to promote 

 putrefaction ; and injurious in large proportion, be- 

 cause it then exerts its antiseptic powers. It has been 

 supposed of benefit by destroying snails, grubs, and 

 other animals in the ground. 



It is observed by Dr. Darwin, that as it is a stimulus 

 which possesses no nourishment, but may excite the 

 vegetable absorbent vessels into greater action than 

 usual, it may, in a certain quantity, increase their 

 growth, by taking up more nourishment in a given 

 time, and performing their circulations and secretions 

 with greater energy. In a greater quantity its stimu- 

 lus may be so great as to act as an immediate poison 

 on vegetables, and destroy the motions of the vessels 

 by .exhausting their irritability. 



The reports of experimenters on the use of salt, as 

 a manure, have been as different as the soils on which 

 their trials were made; owing, in some measure, to 

 causes which can never be foreseen or controlled, and 

 on which agricultural experiment so generally depend?. 



In soils of ferruginous sand, brought to a proper con- 

 sistence by mud, or clay, or marl, salt has been found 

 to exert effects superior to eight out of ten of the best 

 manures. A quantity of ground was prepared, and 

 divided into beds of forty yards in length, by one in 

 breadth. The beds were then sowed and manured by 

 the following substances, in the quantities mentioned : 



1. No manure. 



2. Salt, half a peck. 

 3 Lime, one bushel. 



4. Soot, one peck. 



5. Wood ashes, two pecks. 



6. Saw dust, three bushels. 



7. Malt dust, two pecks. 

 S. Peat, three bushels. 



9- Decayed leaves, three bushels. 



10. Fresh dung, three bushels. 



11. Chandler's graves, 9 Ibs. 



With the exception of chandler's graves, salt was de- 

 cidedly the best of those used. On a trial of com- 

 pounds, the combination of salt and soot was the best. 

 The substances were mixed in the following order, 

 anvl the same quantity of each employed as when used 

 singly ; 



1. Salt and lime. 



2. Salt, lime, and sulphuric acid. 



3. Salt, lime, and peat. 



4. Salt, lime, and dung. 



5. Salt, lime, gypsum, and peat. 



6. Salt and soot. 



7- Salt and wood ashes. 



8. Salt and saw dust, 



p. Salt and malt dust. 



10. Salt and peat. 



11. Salt, peat, aiid bone dust. 



12. Salt and decayed leaves. 

 IS. Salt and pearl ashes. 



14. Salt and chandler's graves. 



Perhaps this superiority may be accounted for by 

 the quality of saline substances to attract moisture from 

 the air j for those beds where salt had been used were 

 visibly and palpably moister than the rest, even for 

 weeks after the salt had been applied ; and the ap- 

 pearance continued until rain fell, when, of course, 



6 



Salt. 



