1'625.] 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEl?. 



lOi 



the soil is poor, and of a nature not lo retain 

 siillicient moisture to promote vegetation b}' dis- 

 solving maiuires or receiving nourisiiment from 

 till! a'mnspliere, induces me to ofTer a i'eiv ob- 

 scrvalions in reply to _voor correspondent's let- 

 ter. Your correspondent commences his ad 

 dress with an indirect intimation thai he is not 

 satisfied that salt is not of value as a manure, 

 and thai, the dul)" now being removed, its value 

 should be fully ascertained and made public; 

 and tlien proceeds to slate for what purposes he 

 liad tried il, and that he has been almost uni- 

 formly unsuccessful ; hut the very brief manner 

 in which he has described the trials he has 

 made, renders il impossible to point out to him, 

 or other persons, the i'«correctness of the time, 

 or of the manner of them, where he has been 

 incorrect, which may have been the case in ev- 

 ery one of them ; as I have known similar re- 

 sults with a friend of mine, in a course of trials 

 which he had made. If farmers woidd but at- 

 tend lo instructions given by those who have 

 published their toslimony of its value, and fol- 

 lowing carefully the exact rules communicated 

 lo them, we should have by their co-operation, 

 this manure soon in general use. I will observe 

 that by Johnson and hy other writers It is direct- 

 ed ns a general best rule lo spread salt by hand 

 at the rate of from 10 to 20 bushels per acre im- 

 mediately after il has been harrowed in ; for all 

 other seed, if in Ihe West of England, [a wel 

 part of Ihe country] after the seed has been har- 

 rowed ; and in counlifts less frequented with rain 

 in January : [in this country as late in the fall 

 or as early in the spring as may be without sow- 

 ing on snowj for meadows [nioiving lands] and 

 Other gra*s in autumn, nol later than November; 

 and if the sail be niA well crusheil [ground or 

 pulverized] it may do much injuE'y. Now in 

 vonr correspondent's letter we have not any clear 

 iuformalion of Ihe exact lime and manner of its 

 being pul on, before orafler the seed was sown, 

 or quantity and purpose particularly stated; but 

 only in a general manner mentioned, lliat live 

 bu«liels of salt ^ler acre were used in numerous 

 trials for throe years, which, untortunalely was 

 the lowest quantity mentioned in Ihe above stat- 

 ed publication, as known to produce any discern- 

 ilile eQect ; and it is well known, that 60 bush- 

 els will commonly cause sterility for a tirpe. If 

 the writer did make any correct trial wilh 15 

 or 20 bushel? ;)er acre and had stated the exact 

 time and manner of pulling on, and qu;inlity used, 

 and for what purpose, the previous crop, and 

 nature and slate of the land, it would have en- 

 abled me to show the incorrectness of Ihe trial 

 if incorrect, and result not successful. The 

 writer would induce many persons to conclude 

 thai he does not correctly understand the man- 

 ner in which salt acts as a manure, otherwise he 

 would not have laid Ihe salt in dillls in any trial. 

 Salt is not itself a direct manure as a food for 

 plants, but operates bcnelicially in various ways 

 not oul_> in hastening the decomposilion of stub- 

 ble and other manures, so as to reinler them 

 more quickly a fond for plants, and thereby ena- 

 bling liiem to I die up a greater quantity in a giv- 

 en time, but also in checking injury from worms 

 and other insecis, and in promoting necessary 

 moisture in the ground, without which plants 

 cannot thrive, and take that carbonaceous I'ood 

 from the atmosphere- necessary for their growth 

 and main support. Salt acts also in other ways 

 unknown to us, as may be particularly observed 



in a severe winter by its efi'ect on Savoy cab- 

 : bage. If the plant be surrounded by a slight 

 s[>rinkling of salt, about two inches from its sUm, 

 itvvo or three weeks before Chrislrnas, its smmd 

 leaves will not at all droop down, which are then 

 jail commonly so, but will preserve them u|> in a 

 I close slate as in mild weather, (-'an this be wil- 

 i nessed, and salt be lliought to have no useful 

 j influence ? 



A writer with the signature " Ji Snrri/ Farm- 

 icr,'''' whose communication on salt as a manure, 

 was published in Ihe Farmers' Journal of June 

 27, 1C25, says " Experience has proved that 20 

 to 30 bushels of salt lo Ihe acre have answered 

 the best expeclalions in many iMstances ; it pro- 

 motes vegetation, and is a great annoyance to 

 slugs, worms, &c. lessens their ravages and often 

 j destroys Ihein. Twelve busliels |)er acre mixed 

 I wilh treble the bulk of good light compost have 

 been found an excellent top-dre<sing for natural 

 and artificial grasses; but 1 would advise those 

 I who are desirous of using Salt to make trial of 

 an acre in competition; they will then have the 

 I fact before them, and there will be no reason for 

 'the uncertain results of chemical analyses of 

 their soils. The experiments of S. are very in- 

 conclusive ; he gives us the results of two ex- 

 tremes, viz five bushels and si,\ly bushels per 

 acre ; the former, as might have been expected, 

 produced no visible effect ; llie latter caused 

 sterility for a time. Now any body the least ac- 

 quainted with the nature of salt, would readdy 

 have imagined the consequences of such IriaU. 

 If S. were a practical niau and desirous of infor- 

 mation on the subject, he should know thai sea- 

 weed is almost the only manure u?ed on many 

 parts of the coast, where it is carted in heaps lo 

 undergo Ihe process of fermentation and decom- 

 posilion, when it is mixed with a given quantity 

 of earth, and spread on land already highly im- 

 pregnated wilh Salt froia its conliguily lo the 

 sea; practice has taught Ihe farmers the proper 

 quantity, to Ihe good effects of which their crops 

 bear ample testimony, both in Kent and Essex ; 

 but when the usual quanlity has been greatly 

 exceeded, il has destroyed vegetation for a time. 

 The like results attend the use of sprals and 

 herrings as manure, owing to the powerful oil 

 they contain." 



The writer above quoted, vvith the signature 

 " Amicus Patriffi," resumes the subject of salt 

 as a manure, in the Farmer's Journal of August 

 1, 1825. In this he says, " The trials made by 

 your cosrespondent S. on the manures lo ascer- 

 tain Ihe dissolving power of salt, do not appear 

 to me to have been rightly calculated for such 

 purpose us 1 think the mixing so much, as 14 

 parts of salt (by weight 1 supjiose) to 50 of ma- 

 nure, was far too large a quantity, and only 1 to 

 50 might, il is probable, be too little, if the rains 

 were great ; so that I think we might by such a 

 mode of trial, be led to very erroneous conclu- 

 sions, either from the rains not penetrating such 

 a body of manure, or if made of shallow depth 

 being soaked too much. I cannot doubt it will 

 be allowed, that unless a proper degree of moist- 

 ure (neither loo much nor too little,) co-operales 

 in Ihe fermentation, the dissolution cannot pro- 

 ceed ; and 1 am of opinion that numerous insects 

 that would be generated in the unsnlted manure, 

 when laid in a heap and not in the salted, would 

 contribute to promote its corruption. S. allows 

 that salt is an absorbent of moisture from the 

 air, it must therefore promote the dissolution of 



nnnures spread on Ihe ground, the free access 

 of the dews and airs assisting ; and as he admits 

 that it certainly increases the weight of the 

 grain, I think it reasonable to conclude, that 

 the salt hastening Ihe decomposilion of ihe ma- 

 nure, and exciling moisture, furnishes that sup- 

 ply ; and as fresh meat will sooner be spoiled 

 with a very little salt thanwhen none is applied, 

 wherein is the difference ? For il is no argu- 

 ment to assert thai nature acts liy contradictory 

 or [larlial laws, if it be line that a small quanti- 

 ty of salt will promote this, or the dsgcsting of 

 our food, and that a much larger quanlity will 

 prevent the meal spoiling, or our food from be- 

 ing digested. Again, it is true that the supposed 

 most jiroper quanlity of .salt for hastening Ihe 

 putrefaction of manure in the field has not yet 

 been slated, nor can be determined ; and the ef- 

 fect of the rains might counteract the best cal- 

 culation. I am satisfied that the worst way, on 

 every account, of sjireading salt on the land, is 

 lo mix it in the dunghill. The statements res- 

 pecting Ihe rust or blight on wheat appearing 

 alike, both on Ihe salted and unsalted ground, do 

 not convey instruction, as S. does not slate any 

 particulars respecting either the soil or quantity 

 of salt used or when put on, or the preceding 

 crop, nor in what quanlity the seed is sown, 

 which is material lo be known ; as Mr Blaikie, 

 Mr Coke's steward, maintains that thick sowing 

 is the best security against blight, attributing to 

 sudden changes from mild lo cold winds, when 

 the wheal is forward, thai check to the rise of 

 Ihe sap which occasions Ihe blight; therefore 

 if S.'s crop was thin and much exposed, the as- 

 sist.ance of the salt may have been too power- 

 fully counleracted. I am satisfied S. will allow 

 that whatever nourishes the corn so as to excite 

 it to take up more food in a given lime, must 

 ntVorffprotection against blight; now, as S. has 

 explained that he is quite satisfied that sail will 

 increase the weight of the grain, when proper- 

 ly used, then it is certain that the plants must 

 lake up more of proper food, and by its assist- 

 ance be betier protected from blight. 



'• The statements from the appearance of the 

 crops of S.'s respected neighbour, who used 

 but eight bushels of salt pev a^re, should have 

 no weio-ht with llie advocates for salt as a man- 

 ure, because S. himself states, that he found five 

 bushels per acre to produce no perceptible ef- 

 fect in any respect, consequently eight bushels 

 could not'be expected lo aflord any material 

 farther assistance in its. appearance in the field ; 

 and on this subject 1 can attest that I have re- 

 peatedly been unable to discern the least differ- 

 ence in t!ie field when salted, and yet have af- 

 terwards found a belter sampla, and an increased 

 produce of 5^ bushels per acre ; 1 therefore 

 particularly urge it on the attention of the for- 

 mer never to be satisfied without a careful 

 ascertainment of comparative samples and pro- 

 duce. The putting on sail to young clovers 

 was utterly wrong — the green leaf, the lungs of 

 the plant, touched by salt, is destroyed, whether 

 done in the act of spreading the sail, or, when 

 very young, the high winds bending it to the 

 salted ground before dissolved away, or from too 

 strong a solution of it touching and injuring the 

 stem: a small quantity of weak brine put on the 

 leaves of the FreHch'bean will quickly show its 

 elTeCi. Th^t with a substance possessing such 

 power as salt, which only acts as a stimulant, 

 and not as a food, and in a manner not yet sum- 



