302 Extracts Jrom Communications to the Society, 



May^ 1825. — Mr. Carey communicated the result 

 of an experiment on the use of salt as a manure for 

 grass. Upon a small lot in Philadelphia county, which 

 appeared about six years since to be much out of heart, 

 he strewed between three and three and a half bushels 

 of salt to the acre. The first season he had a better crop 

 by far, than the ground ever produced since it came into 

 his possession. For four years he had good reason to be 

 satisfied with the result. Two years since, he put on 

 the same quantity with similar effects. The appearance 

 of the grass, notwithstanding the drought of the season, 

 was highly gratifying. The grass in the lot, is compos- 

 ed of red clover, and native green grass {^poa viriclis.)^ 



tending through several of the States, furnish, in Cane brakes, 

 and chiefly, in vast bodies of lands covered with rushes, a nu- 

 tritious green forage ; which feeds thousands of cattle, very 

 sightly in appearance ; and many of them of fine forms and large 

 sizes. The young shoots and tender foliage of the Buck-eye first 

 put forth ; and offer irresistible but destructive temptations. 

 Their appetites and keen hunger conquer their instinct; which 

 generally warns them to avoid noxious esculents. And it is well 

 known, that many shrubs, vines, and other wild productions, 

 are poisonous and fatal to some animals, though eaten by others, 

 not only with impunity, but with wholesome nourishment. The 

 young Buck eye plants start early, even in cultivated fields ; 

 and may be the occasion of the disorder, to grazing cattle in 

 such fields ; though it may not be the sole cause. The Buck- 

 eye has an effect on the brain of cattle, so as to produce verti- 

 ginous affections. The diseased cattle shew excruciating bowel 

 complaints, and very protuberant swellings. They stiffen in the 

 joints, stagger, fall, and die. So that a drunken man is sarcas- 

 tically said to have been eating Buck-eye. It is said, that the 

 pulverised, or triturated nuts, or the inside bark, of the Buck- 

 eye, will have the like effect on fish, with the Cocculus Indicus. 

 I give this narrative as I received it. R. P.] 



* [In the month of March last, I caused to be sown, on parts 

 of a wheat field, at the rate of about four bushels of pure broken 



