410 



MO.NTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



Arabs. Gazelles live in immense herds upon 

 the open plains, vrbere they bro\^-se upon the 

 saline and ponsent herbage. The Americans 

 call the salt springs deer-Ucki, because the deer 

 and elks (Cerrus A'cesi frequently repair to 

 them, not only to eat the saline herbage, bnt to 

 lick the wet pebbles. They come in such nom- 

 bers to these salt localities that the ground about 

 is trodden into mud by them. 



Pliny only alludes to salt as a beneficial inere- 

 dient in food for grazing. In his '• Natural His- 

 tory," I Book xxL chap. 7.) he teUs ns that cattle 

 have an avidity for a salt pasture, and tliat cows 

 fed thereon give more milk, and much better 

 for curding into cheese, than upon ground not of 

 a saline natnre. In some pans of Africa, large 

 herds of cattle travel from great distance.*, at 

 stated sea.=ons, to enjoy the marine plants -which 

 grow on the coast and are saturated with sea 

 salt The fattening property of our own salt 

 marshes is weU kno\^"n to graziers and farmers. 

 In Smith's '-Wondera" it is stated that the 

 ■water of the salt mines near Eperies. in Upper 

 Himgary. afford " a blackish salt, which is gen- 

 ei-ally eiven to cattle.'" For many years, it has 

 been the custom in Germany, and particularlj- 

 in Wirtemberg, where a vast number of oxen 

 are bred, to give doses of glauber salts to cattle. 

 As long as common salt is more expensive than 

 glauber salts, it ■was thought that the inhabitants 

 of Wirtemberg used the latter through econo- 

 my, but this supposition must have been errone- 

 0U.S. as they stUl continue to use glauber salts, 

 although the discovert- of salt springs has ren- 

 dered the domestic salt exceedingly cheap. — 

 The reason they assign lor this preference is, 

 that it conduces, by its purgative qualities, to 

 keep the cattle in good health, and that even 

 Nvhen. from long habit, they become less liable 

 to be acted on by it ix still promotes digestion, 

 and brings the beasts into good condition more 

 rapidly. Two doses are generally given each 

 week. A horse has an ounce and a half; an ox 

 or a cow receives an ounce : and sheep three 

 quarters of an ounce ; and a pig about half an 

 ounce. Slionld its purgative effects prove too 

 stron?. the dose is diminished. There is no 

 trouble in administering the salt, as it is merely 

 sprinkled over the food. The price of it in 

 Germany is a mere trifle, as the mines of Boux- 

 ■viller. in the department of the Lower Rhine, 

 furnish it from the manufacture of ammonia in 

 great plenty. Matthew Apbonin, a Russian nat- 

 uralist, remarks that '• oxen fatten very quickly 

 upon ilie sea-coa-sls ■where the arrow-gra.ss, 

 f Trifrlochin maratiravrn.J their favorite food, 

 abounds:'' and if this be so. it is probably a.scrib- 

 able to the saline nature of the plant, and to the 

 sea-breezes containing particles of salt, which 

 appears to be neces.sary to stimulate their diges- 

 tive organs, and therefore conducive to their 

 health. In Upper Canada the cattle have plenty 

 of Nvild pasture to browse on in the ■woods, but 

 once in a fortnight they return, of their o\v\> ac- 

 cord, to the farms, to obtain a little salt ; and 

 when the\- have eaten it mi.\ed -with their fod- 

 der tliey repair again to the woods. D'Azara 

 tells us that in some parts of Paraguay, salt is 

 not ^ven to the herds of cattle ; but ihey are 

 supplied with the harrero, 'a saline or nitrous 

 eartii.) which they and other animals seek with 

 avidity, and without which they fa'il and die in 

 the coarse of four months. From tlie 27^ of 

 south latitude to the Malovine Islands, they have 

 no need of the horrero, because the ■water and 1 

 pasture-grounds are sufficiently salt ; but north- j 



ward, beyond this latitude, it is necessary, and 

 the plains which do not contain it feed neither 

 die ox. horse, ass, mnle. goat or sheep. 



Dickson, in his • Husbandrj- of the Ancients, 

 tells us they were accustomed to prepare the 

 8trav%- for feeding stock by keeping it for a con- 

 siderable time steeped in brine ; that it was then 

 dried. roUed up in bundle.*, and given to oxen 

 instead of hay. In Spain, the practice is of 

 great antiquity, (for we remember reading of it 

 ia some Latin author,) and in the low countries, 

 %vhere they have no traditional data to ascertain 

 its first introduction among tliem. Dr. Brown- 

 rigg. in his "Art of Making Common Salt." 

 (1748.) remarks that " salt provokes the appe- 

 tite, strengthens the stomach, promotes the con- 

 coction and digestion of the aliments. &c. and 

 is most friendly and agreeable to the human 

 body. Moreover, black cattle and sheep take a 

 pleasure in licking it. and by it are preserved 

 from many diseases ; they also thrive to admira- 

 tion upon it." The Mm^enm Rustici/m (1763) 

 confirms this by the practice which had long be- 

 fore been pursued in America, •• where,'' says 

 the American contributor to the above work, 

 '• we think it in a manner absolutely necessary, 

 and, accordingly, give it to almost every kind of 

 cattle, and those %vith parted hoofs are particu- 

 larly fond of it. To this practice of feeding with 

 salt it is generallv ascribed that our cattle are so 

 much more healthy than the same animals in 

 England : certain it is that tliey are subject to 

 much fewer diseases.'' The first experiment as 

 regards sheep, instituted in England, seems to 

 have been in 1801, on the estate of the Board of 

 Agriculture. Lord Somerville's account of this 

 experiment is exceedingly interesting and im- 

 portant and too little kno\\'n. " The .salt" his 

 Lordship relates. " is given in the morning when 

 the sheep are looked over, in order to counter- 

 act the ill effects of the dew. On an average, 

 one ton of salt is annually consumed by a thou- 

 sand sheep. A small handful of salt is put on a 

 flat stone or slate ; and ten or fifteen of these 

 slatei", set a few yards apart, suffice for one hrm- 

 dred sheep. At first, the sheep maj- be moved 

 toward them ; if they feel a craving for salt they 

 will lick up quickly as much as is nece.ssary ; if 

 they do not ■want it, what remains dry when the 

 sheep are next looked at is taken up and re- 

 served for future u-se. T-n-ice a week has been 

 usually found sufficient; in particular cases it 

 may be offered thrice. Of a flock approaching 

 to one thousand, there are not ten old sLeep 

 which have not taken kindlj' to it, and not a 

 lamb which does not consume it greedily. — 

 When turnips, in the early sea-M^n. are stocked 

 with sheej), and the greens are rank and strong, 

 many die suddenly, especially two-toothed 

 .sheep : the disorder ari.=ing from excess of fer- 

 mentation in the stomach. In this disorder, hay 

 and salt are devoured with a greediness that de- 

 notes their salutarj- effects. In the rainy and 

 unfavorable autumn of leOl, -we did not lose one 

 .slieep in turnips, and. probably, nprer xholl, 

 \vliile we persevere in the n.se of salt In the 

 autumn of 1 802. we had many hundred fat weth- 

 er"?, ewes, and hog sheep, in turnips, and lost 

 two the first month the turnips were stocked.— 

 Certainly the chances were that in any keep, 

 and anv season, more might have died out of so 

 large a" flock. In strong pa-stures, when seasons 

 are wet the rot often spreads destruction over 

 whole tracts of the countrj- ; in such a case, salt 

 must be beneficial, and an object of national im- 

 portance. It is supposed, and with great truth. 



