AGRICULTURE WITH CHEMISTRY, 93 



trary to the first impression it makes, is certainly not to be 

 attributed alone to scarcity, but to choice, as cows and 

 neat cattle are frequently observed to forsake the best pro- 

 vender,, and to pick up and eat the litter from horse- 

 stables ; the state of the stomachs of these animals in- 

 ducing them to seek and apply, as a stimulus, the volatile 

 alkali contained in the urine of the horses, absorbed by 

 the straw. The necessity that cattle are under of thus 

 supplying themselves with the only stimulus or saline 

 matter within their reach, and the well known salu- 

 tary effects of salt, when given to cattle in other coun- 

 tries, evidently point out the very important benefits 

 that would arise, were cattle supplied from time to time 

 with a due proportion of sea salt ; and, as such, it cannot 

 but be regretted, that the duty on an article, so essential 

 to the purposes of farming, and grazing, should so com- 

 pletely operate as a prohibition to its use : and the more 

 so, as Government has long since been in possession of 

 suggestions which could not have failed, had they been 

 duly attended to, to have insured the most important be- 

 nefits, not only to agriculture, the feeding and health of 

 cattle, but likewise to several branches of manufacture in 



these 







