146 EFFECTS OF DROUGHT AND KIND OF CROP. 



Per imp. acre. 

 1 2 



a Nothing, gave 1 44 stones. 96 stones 



Common salt, 5 cwt. 144 ... 96 ... 



Nitrate of soda, 2 ... 268 ... 208 ... 



Nitrate of potash, 1J... 240 ... 192 ... 



And upon these results Mr Wilson remarks, "! may state in 

 regard to common salt, that although it has failed this season, 

 1844, I had previously used it to great advantage. In 1843 

 it increased the hay crop nearly one-third ; and I presume it was 

 owing to the dryness of the season that it had no effect on the 

 first cutting, as the grasses appeared stinted in their growth 

 after it was applied, and only partially recovered, and as the 

 second crop was evidently benefited by it."* 



He does not say whether he applied it in 1843 to the same 

 piece of land ; if so, the first dose of 5 cwt. per acre might have 

 been enough for the two succeeding years. Supposing that 

 Mr Wilson is right, however, in attributing the want of effect 

 to the drought, it is interesting to remark how much less effect 

 the drought had upon the nitrates. Indeed, it is not improbable 

 that the beneficial influence of these nitrates, supposing them to 

 have once been dissolved and absorbed by the soil, would be 

 promoted and increased by a continuance of warm and dry 

 weather. 



7. The Tdndof crop, whether it be a corn or a root crop, must 

 materially influence the visible effects produced by common 

 salt. All crops contain a certain proportion of common salt, 

 and in green and root crops especially it appears to abound. 

 The quantity found even in the same kind of plant is by no 

 means constant ; but it has been estimated by Mr Way, (Roy. 

 Ag. Journal, viii., p. 186,) that turnips contain, according to the 

 average of his trials, about two pounds in every ton of bulbs 

 and mangel-wurtzel or beet, six pounds and a-half of common 

 salt. It is deserving of rigorous experimental inquiry, there- 

 fore, whether these crops are generally grateful for supplies of 

 salt, and whether they are so in the relative proportions in 

 which, according to Mr Way, common salt is found in them. 

 * Transactions of the Highland Society, Oct. 1848, p. 142. 



