386 



FARMERS' REGISTER— DECOMPOSED SALT. 



died with it the better lor the crop. Now, the 

 first trial of bone-dust or rape-cake would leave no 

 such impression upon the mind. Salt being gene- 

 rally neglected as a manure is a proof of its inutili- 

 ty; lor a good manure, so plentiful as salt is, would 

 have insinuated itself, partially at least, into prac- 

 tice in spite of obstructions; though, we grant, the 

 inconvenience of procuring it through the vexa- 

 tious forms of the excise, may have operated 

 against its univ^ersal dissemination. But there 

 never existed any serious obstruction to the use of 

 salt in agriculture. The high duty was only ex- 

 acted when it was to be usedfor culinary purposes, 

 and never for the purj^oses of agriculture. Be- 

 sides, the duty has ceased for ten years, and vet 

 how trifling is its use m agriculture, only 5000 

 tons a year, according to Mr. Johnson's ovvn 

 showing, all of which, or the greater part, may be 

 consumed by culinaiy preparation, in the improved 

 mode of feeding horses in coaching establishments. 

 We quite agree with Mr. Kemp, when he con- 

 tends "that no substance like salt, vv^hich is used 

 only in quantities that would mcur an expense of 

 10s. or 15s. an acre, could, at the present time, 

 ^nine or ten years subsequent to the great altera- 

 tion in its price,) be considered of doubtful value, 

 if it really possessed that decided excellence, which 

 those who have endeavored to promote an extend- 

 ed use of it would have us believe." 



Is common salt, therefore, useless in agricul- 

 ture? By no means. It may be successfully used 

 to destroy a host of vermin, such as snails, slugs, 

 grubs, &c. which infest the soil and attack youno- 

 plants. It is a delightful condiment in the food of 

 live-stock. Experience has now established, that 

 horses, for the saddle or harness, will do as much 

 and as fast work on prepared food seasoned with 

 salt, at much less exjiense, than in the ordinary 

 mode of feeding them on dry hard food. This 

 benefit would be still more perceptible in preparing 

 the food in the same manner for the slow working 

 horses of the farm. Were cattle permitted to 

 have access to salt in the calf's crib, grazing field, 

 and fattening stall, they would acquire an earlier 

 maturity. See how regularly herds of buffalos 

 and deer frequent the salt licks in America! But 

 of all creatures sheep are delighted with salt. 

 The graphic picture of the desire of sheep for salt, 

 drawn by Arthur Young, and described by Mr. 

 Kemp, is not in the least exaggerated. Many a 

 time have we contemplated such a scene with a 

 swelling bosom. Many a time have we envied 

 the shepherd's life, — limb-tiring, watchful, and 

 anxious as it is, — when we have seen the "fearful 

 people" skipping and shaking their "woolly sides" 



in sport on a fresh break of turnips, or running 

 wiih eager stejjs for the first lick of salt. 



The great object which Mr. Kemp had in view 

 in inditing his address to the owners and occupiers 

 of land in Great Britain and Ireland, was not so 

 much to argue against the use of common salt as 

 a manure, as to show that, deleterious as it is to 

 land in its common state, it yields a valuable and 

 economical manure when decomposed. The his- 

 tory of this important discovery is thus given by 

 Mr. Kemp: — 



"Notwithstanding the constant disappointment 

 with which all my trials of salt were attended, 

 previously to its decomposition, I lelt confident that 

 it possessed a latent property, which would one 

 day be found of infinite value to the farmer. I was 

 not a little encouraged in the idea which I had 

 thus formed of the capabilities of salt, from the 

 circumstance, that being a substance of more uni- 

 versal diffusion than any other, either in its marine 

 or fossil state, so, if it could be turned to account 

 as a really useful manure, almost every portion of 

 the cultivated surface of the earth would derive 

 advantage from it. The small quantity which it 

 seemed probable would be requisite for imparting 

 fertility, would render it every where easily acces- 

 sible. The great exj^ense now incurred by the 

 employment of bones, and many other artificial 

 manures, would probably be superseded by a 

 much cheaper and more efficient article in prepared 

 salt. I did not think the expectation too sanguine 

 that led me to calculate on the probability that 

 such a discovery, in providing a simple and ready 

 antidote to the exhaustion of soils, may become 

 the means of ameliorating the condition of the hu- 

 man race to a degree almost incalculable. Only 

 suppose that, by a new and improved system in 

 agriculture, the earth was made to yield an increase 

 in the ratio only of a tithe greater than it did be- 

 fore, how materially would such a result conduce to 

 the welfare of mankind. Now, by the discovery 

 whicli has furnished the subject of this address, I 

 feel assured, that a produce even one-third more 

 than is at present drawn from the soil, v/ill readily 

 be procured by its proi)er application to it. 



"Salt is composed of soda and muriatic acid, at 

 least so we usually describe it, though there are 

 some other matters commonly associated with 

 them, particularly in the marine kind, but the pro- 

 portion is so inconsiderable, as to be hardly worth 

 notice, and therefore, for the object befJare us, it is 

 hardly necessary to consider it as consisting of any 

 thing more than the ingredients we have named. 



"The exact analysis of salt will be found as fol- 

 lows: — 



The proportions of soda and muriatic acid are aboui forty of the former to sixty of the latter in 100 

 parts. 



