COMMON SALT. 19 



THosphere by the odor of the Long-Leaf Pine, is an engaging subject for science. 

 I will only here say that there is such an eficct beyond doubt, as is proven 

 daily. Hands engaged in making Turpentine are always more healthy than those 

 employed at any other business, and so are they who live in the piney region, if 

 unconnected with, or not adjacent to stagnant waters. If time siiall prove the 

 Southern Long-Leaf Pine of value, approaching those of Carolina in their yield and 

 products, what a source of wealth they luusi be to the ISalion as a portion of the 

 public lands ; and how improvident and short-sighted they must be who insist 

 upon giving away, or graduating the price of them, based upon present estimates 

 ol' value. If the liDids not sold are let alone, only to be protected by the Govern- 

 ment from the hands of the spoiler, until time shall bring about their true value 

 and they are permitted to fullil their intended destiny, in educating the rising 

 and succeedin<j generations, and making and improving the highways of trade 

 and pleasure tiiroughout the States, what portion of the habitable globe can com- 

 pare with these United States of America in all the means and ends necessary to 

 the happiness of man ? 



COMMON SALT. 



KEASONS WHY IT :?HOUI.D NOT BE USED AS A MANURE lOR THE CANE FIELIT. 

 John S. Skinner, Esq., Editor of I'aiinfi-s' Library : Parish of Ascension, La., April 5th, 1846. 



Dear Sir — The last time I had the pleasure of seeing you, some one present 

 spoke of the favorable mention made by Judge Rost, in his address published in 

 the Farmers' Library, of common salt as a fertilizer. 1 observed that notwith- 

 standing the favorable result of Judge Rost's experiments ; and although a 

 sugar planter of some note in the State had, for a number of years past, made a 

 liberal application of salt to his land ; yet there was a chemical fact which ren- 

 dered it highly objectionable as a manure for the cane field. I alluded to the 

 combination of common salt (chloride of sodium,) with sugar, in the proportion of 

 one part of salt to six parts of sugar, by Avhich an uncrystali'/able compound is 

 formed. That I spoke authoritatively Avill appear from what follows. 



Boussingault in his Rural Economy (translated by George Law) says: "Mr.. 

 Peligot has pointed out several causes which concur to deteriorate sugar ; among, 

 the number, a viscous fermentation which renders the sap thick and stringy, like 

 mucilage, by which the boiling becomes dillicult and the crystalization of the 

 sugar which has escaped change is rendered imperfect. 2. An acidity which 

 takes place when the juice is not run at once into the coppers and boiled — an 

 acidity which requires the addition of lime to destroy or to prevent. The alka- 

 line earth, as I have had occasion to say, is by no means indispensable : its utility 

 under ordinary circumstances is probably confined to assisting the defecation by 

 forming an insoluble precipitate with some of the organic substances which are 

 always to be met with in small quantities in the cane juice : perhaps also to. 

 making an earthy soap with tlie fatty matters which adhere to the cone and are 

 expressed in the crushing-. When lime is added to correct acidity, it forms arv 

 acetate or a lactate — salts which are peculiarly soluble, uncrystalizable ancS 

 which necessarily retain a quantity of syrup ni the syrupy state. 3. The presence 

 of certain mineral salts in the cane. Common salt, for instance, in combining 

 with sugar, forms a deliquescent compound in which one part of salt is united 

 with six parts of sugar ; such a compound as this of course renders a large quan- 

 tity of syrup indisposed to crystalize. It is, therefore, impossible to be too cau- 

 tious, according to Mr. Peligot, in the choice of manure for a cane field ; that 

 Avhich contains any common salt must needs be injurious in one way, however 

 advantageous it may be in another. The entire absence of this salt" in the soil 

 of plantations which are very remote from the sea shore, is perhaps one of the 

 causes which increase the quantity of sugar obtained from the crop, and makes 

 it more easily manufactured in those districts." 



And what follows is extracted from "A Report of Chemical Analyses of Sugars 

 and Molasses," by Professors Bache and McCulloh, prepared in obedience to a 

 resolution of Congress. " Now it follows from this fcict, and the direct experi- 

 ments of Mr. Hervey, that crystalizable cane sugar is the only .saccharine matter 

 in the cane, and that all the molasses susrar, crape sugar, &c., contained ia 

 the molasses, are results of decomposition of cane suirar by imperfect manage- 



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