98 On Salt as a Manure, 



lands marked out, and measured quantities of salt strewed | 

 sometimes the least quantity produced the greatest effect. 

 My mowers, when they arrived at some of the salted strips, 

 would exclaim, « here comes the salt!" And when the field 

 was finished, the salted strips could be perceived at any rea- 

 sonable distance, by their deep verdure. The English books 

 are inadequate guides, as they only shew the quantities of 

 foul salt used. 1 relate the following experiment, not for the 

 eligibility of the rotation, but as atrial of the efficacy of salt. 

 Four years ago 1 strewed thirteen bushels of pure coarse salt 

 on an acre and twenty-seven perches of ground, in the fall, 

 and ploughed it in. The next spring I planted potatoes, 

 lightly dunged, in the usual way. I had a miserable crop; 

 but it was clean and free from weeds. After gathering the 

 potatoes, I sowed wheat, well furrowed. On the grain I sowed 

 clover and orchard grass. My wheat at harvest was scarcely 

 worth reaping, and the grass looked \ery unpromising | but, 

 to my utter surprise, as the next spring advanced, a most 

 luxuriant crop of clover appeared, which grew so high and 

 strong, that I cut more than four tons : it was coarse and not 

 relished by my cattle; much had been layed. In the fall, I 

 ploughed it in, and the last spring I again planted potatoes, 

 I gathered one of the most plentiful crops I had ever experi- 

 enced. After the potatoes, I sowed rye, which now promises 

 an abundant crop. I manured, in every instance, \Qvy 

 slightly, with dung of an inferior quality. 1 have given this 

 detail to shew, that an over quantity of salt is temporarily 

 injurious, but ultimately salutary and effective. When, 

 therefore, I perceive objections to salting, (as I often do, as 

 well here as in England) I am satisfied that there has been 

 error, either in the quantity or quality of the salt^ in the na- 

 ture of the soil, or the mode of application. On grass 

 grounds I have known an intermission of effect during one or 

 two years, and thereafter a luxuriant produce ; no doubt ow- 

 ing to the improper quantity used. My farms are chiefly 

 composed of a kindly loam, well adapted to every species of 

 manure. I have clay fields, but I do not recollect any experi« 

 ments with salt on such fields. R» P* 



Mayy 1825.] 



