FERTILIZERS. 257 



potash : it is, however, cheaper, and sufficiently so to warrant its use in husbandry. It is not 

 an universal fertilizer, and some experiments indicate that favorable circumstances are essential 

 to an increase of product. A mixture of this salt with nitrate of soda, forms a better applica- 

 tion than either, singly : on oats it is known to be less effective than the superphosphate of 

 lime, or bones dissolved in sulphuric acid. The latter increases the weight also, per bushel. 

 Those plants which require sulphur, or sulphuric acid, are benefited by this salt. 



Chloride of Sodium, {Common Salt.) The general impression, in regard to salt, is favorable, 

 as to its fertilizing properties. The vegetation of some plants shows, conclusively, the speciality 

 of certain substances as their common food. Marine plants, for example, have their habitation 

 fixed, as it were, «long shore : they require a great amount of saline food, and hence will not 

 survive when transplanted to the interior, or at a distance from salt water. Where saline 

 springs exist in the interior, far removed from salt water, there they make their appearance as 

 on the sea coast. Common salt, then, has its adaptation to marine plants, but has not been 

 very efficacious in promoting the growth of the cereals, and other plants which have become 

 an important article of food. Wheat contains only a trace of chlorine, and although soda is a 

 constituent of the ash, it is not, by any means, necessary that it should be derived from salt. 

 Clover contains chloride of sodium. Madder root contains the largest proportion of any vege- 

 table which is cultivated, amounting to over eleven per cent. The leaves and stalks of broom 

 corn and of maize, hay, of the coarse grasses particularly, all contain common salt. The effect 

 of common salt seems to be limited to the stalks and herbage, in which respect its action re- 

 sembles the nitrates ; perhaps the same indications for the use of this substance may be em- 

 ployed. Fields which produce a weak straw may be sown with salt, or a top dressing for the 

 crop. 



Much has been said upon the efficacy of salt as a remedy for injurious insects, the wire 

 worm, grubs, etc. Its effects, however, have been overrated ; it is true that it destroys these 

 vermin, in its concentrated state, but used in a proper dose for plants, its influence is but feeble. 

 The plum tree is benefited by the use of salt freely upon the soil beneath it. Fertilizers are 

 valuable remedies for worms : high cultivation, indeed, is the most successful mode of treating 

 wormy lands. 



Silicate of Soda. The constitutions of the cereals require, as already stated, silica. Soda, in 

 combination with silica in any proportion, is one step taken towards supplying those plants with 

 silica : soda, then, performs the same office as potash. In the present state of our knowledge 

 it is difficult to know which should have the preference, unless indeed cheapness is taken into 

 consideration. Soda is less expensive, and, therefore, may be employed in preference to potash. 

 The artificial silicates of the alkalies have not been introduced into use, even in England, not- 

 withstanding their recommendation by men of high authority ; and yet, when the seasons favor 

 their solution, there can be no doubt of their value. May an inquiry be entertained in regard 

 to the least expense of supplying silica ; and if guided by the true principles of economy, 

 would it not result in proving that it is cheaper to prepare silica in the soil, by the application 

 of lime, than by the artificial compounds prepared by the fusion of the materials 1 Silica 

 [Agricdltural Report — Vol. in.] 33 



