66 ON THE USES OF SALT IN CULTIVATION. 



spring exceeding anything of the kind I ever saw." "Mr. Beck^ 

 gardener in Chorley, has constantly made use of salt for thirty years, 

 principally upon his onions, and he has invariably found the salt to 

 exceed every other kind of manure which he has used for the pur- 

 pose ; his method is to sow the salt immediately after the seed is 

 covered in, using not less than sixteen bushels per acre." "A far- 

 mer near Lancaster, England, has be6n in the habit of carting salt 

 water to put upon his dung whilst in the heap, before it is taken to the 

 ground ; and has found that it very much enriches the dung, and 

 makes it better manure." The following experiment illustrating the 

 effect of salt is related of a Mr. Seckler, "who made a little heap 

 of earth in the midst of a field, on the top of which a cart-load of 

 refuse salt was thrown ; the earth in the heap itself, and (after its 

 removal) the earth under it, for upwards of two feet deep to the 

 clay, was rendered so perfectly barren, that the most common weeds 

 would not vegetate in it : this barren earth, however, furnished the 

 richest dressing for the remainder of the field. Mr. Seckler fovmd 

 salt the best preservative against the mildew in wheat ; when the 

 wheat followed turnips with salt, it escaped the mildew, which at- 

 tacked other fields which were not salted." The celebrated farmer. 

 Sir John Sinclair, says o£ salt, that "like every other excessive 

 stimulant, if used in large quantities its tendency is to destroy the 

 vegetable substances with which it comes in contact, (as is the effect 

 of guano) but in moderate quantities it promotes the growth of 

 vegetables." 



At the present day, many are turning their attention to the use of 

 this article as a fertilizer, as well as a top-dressing in orchards for the 

 destruction of insects. We commenced our experiments upon the 

 use of salt and saline substances in 1828, particularly with the plum 

 tree, and have been successful, not only in having good crops of fruit 

 from that time to the present, but also rendering (in connection with 

 clay) our soil — which was naturally of a light and sandy loam, sub- 

 ject to drought — one of a more retentive and prolific nature. We 

 have also used brine upon the gooseberry and currant bushes for the 

 destruction of insects, with decided benefit, by dissolving salt in wa- 

 ter in the' proportion of one pound to about four gallons. We how- 

 ever proportion this mixture according to the state of the plant ; 

 thus, for the gooseberry, we applied, early in spring before the shoots 

 or leaves were at all developed, a decoction so strong as to whiten 



