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Some persons have argued against the employ- 

 ment of salt ; because when used in large quantities, 

 it either does no good, or renders the ground sterile , 

 but this is a very unfair mode of reasoning. That salt 

 in large quantities rendered land barren, was known 

 long before any records of agricultural science exist- 

 ed. We read in the Scriptures, that Abimelech took 

 the city of Shechem, "and beat down the city, and 

 sowed it with salt ;" that the soil might be for ever un- 

 fruitful. Virgil reprobates a salt soil ; and Pliny, 

 though he recommends giving salt to cattle, yet af- 

 firms, that when strewed over land it renders it bar- 

 ren. But these are not arguments against a proper 

 application of it. Refuse salt in Cornwall, which, how- 

 ever, likewise contains some of the oil and exuviae of 

 fish, has long been known as an admirable manure. 

 And the Cheshire farmers contend for the benefit of 

 the peculiar produce of their country. 



It is not unlikely that the same causes influence 

 the effects of salt, as those which act in modifying the 

 operation of gypsum. Most lands in this Island, par- 

 ticularly those near the sea, probably contain a suffi- 

 cient quantity of salt for all the purposes of vegetation ; 

 and in such cases the supply of it to the soil will not 

 only be useless, but may be injurious. In great 

 storms the spray of the sea has been carried more 

 than 50 miles from the shore ; so that from this 

 source salt must be often supplied to the soil. I have 

 found salt in all the sandstone rocks that I have ex- 

 amined, and it must exist in the soil derived from 

 these rocks. It is a constituent likewise of almost 

 every kind of animal and vegetable manure^ 



