74 Farmers^ Miscellany. [Jan., 



tion, that the experiment could not have been tried on a soil bet- 

 ter adapted to give impartial results. Of ten different manures 

 w^hich were resorted to, most of them of known and acknowledg- 

 ed efficacy, one only excepted, salt was superior to them all. Its 

 effects, when combined w4th soot, were extraordinary, yielding in 

 a row two hundred and forty potatoes, whilst one hundred and 

 fifty only were produced from the row manured with lime. It 

 was observable also, where salt was applied, whether by itself or 

 in combination, the roots were free from that scrubbiness which 

 often infects potatoes, and from which none of the other beds 

 (and there were in the field near forty more than made part of the 

 experiments), were altogether exempt. So much for foreign ex- 

 periments; now let us see what has been done in this country. 



From the information which I have been enabled to collect, I 

 am inclined to believe that salt, when sparingly applied, is valu- 

 able as a fertilizer, and useful in destroying the grub and wire- 

 worm, which often injure, and sometimes even destroy whole 

 crops; and it has been found by experiments the past season, that 

 the scab, or disease which has proved so disastrous to the potatoe 

 crop in all sections of the country, has never been found upon 

 land that had a proper dressing of salt. 



Judge Hamilton, of Schoharie, informed the writer that he had 

 found great benefit from using salt on his potatoe ground last 

 spring. After ploughing, he caused four bushels of salt to be 

 sown, broadcast, on the furrow, upon one acre of the field and 

 harrowed in. Potatoes were then planted. Part of the field was 

 not salted. Although the season was remarkably dry, the salted 

 acre was observed to maintain a green, vigorous appearance, 

 while the other part of the field looked sickly and stunted. On 

 lifting them in the fall, those potatoes where salt had been applied 

 were of good size, smooth skin, sound, and of good quality, and 

 yielded a fair crop, while those on the unsalted part of the field, 

 although the soil was full equal to that of the salted portion, the 

 yield was considerable less, potatoes small, and much eaten by 

 worms. 



His neighbor had a field of potatoes on the opposite side of the 



