NEW ENGL.AND FARMER. 



Published by John B. Russell, at M>. 52 Mtrth Market Street, (at the Agricultural fVarehouse).— Thomas G. Fessenden, Editor. 



VOL. YII. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1829. 



No. 48. 



AGRICULTURE. 



SALT AS A MANURE. 



(By the Eililor.) 



There have been few subjects, relating to agri- 

 culture, which liave been more controverted than 

 the question relative to the value of salt as a ma- 

 nure. To recommend salt as a fertilizer, pamphlet 

 after pamphlet, essays, which cannot be number- 

 ed, and treatises long enough to tire the patience 

 of the most dogged disciple of dulness, that ever 

 dozed after dinner, have been poured out on a 

 patient public, from " time whereof the memory 

 of man runneth not to the contrary," down to the 

 present enlightened i)eriod. But, notwithstanding 

 salt has been so highly extolled, the sentiments of 

 the most sclentilic and experienced cultivators, 

 who have written on the subject, within the last ! 

 eight or ten years, have been against its use as an 

 application to land. They say, in substance, if 

 salt alone, were in all cases a valuable manure, 

 we could have no barren sea coast. All lands 

 subject to the saline influences of the sea must be- 

 come as rich as if the)' were pervaded by the 

 drainings from a farm yard. Cape Cod would be 

 as fruitful as " Araby the blest," and many a mile 

 of naked beach, which hardly exhibits a trace of 

 vegetation, would be as fertile as any mixture of 

 soil and manure can possibly render the earth's 

 surface. 



A writer in the " Farmer's Journal," printed 141 

 London, in treating of the value of common salt as 

 a manure, states that " A rich sandy loam, a poor 

 sandy soil, a strong clay, and a barren peat-moss 

 soil were severally manured with salt. Each va- 

 riety of soil was treated and cropped in the same 

 way. On each of these soils salt was apphed in 

 various proportions from five to si.vty bushels per 

 acre, and upwards ; these proved to be two ex- 

 treme ])oints ; for five bushels per acre were pro- 

 ductive of no apparent efl'ect whatever, while sixty 

 bushels produced absolute sterility. 



" To grass land the salt was applied by scatter- 

 ing it over the surface with a shovel, in the man- 

 ner of applying powdered caustic lime in its simple 

 state. It w;is applied to the grass land in Octo- 

 ber, and also in March. 



" To the soils above mentioned, in tillage, salt 

 was applied as flillows: — 1st, simply by itself ; 

 2d, combined with lime ; 3d, combined with spit 

 manure ; 4th, combined with long dung ; 5th, 

 combine I with oil-cake dust. 



" The mode of application was also varied as 

 follows : — 1st, by scattering it on the surface 

 simply, and also combined with manure, and 

 ploughing it in previous to sowing the seed ; 2d, 

 depositing it (in these different states) in the seed 

 bed along with the seed : in some instances broad- 

 cast, and in others in drills ; and lastly, applied to 

 the Surface after the vegetation of the seed, or of 

 the appearance of the plants above ground. Dif- 

 ferent proportions of salt and spit manure, long 

 dung, and of clay, were also respectively mixed 

 up in heaps, and suffered to remain for several 

 months, in order to ascertain whether any, or what 

 change might be effected by salt in the process of 

 decomposition, either as hastening or retarding its 



progress ; similar heaps of these substances simp- 

 ly, or without salt, being placed side by side, for 

 the purpose of obtaining comparative proofs. I 

 may also add that salt in solution of various de- 

 grees of strength at the proper season, was applied 

 as a topical remedy for the rust disease of wheat. 



" The grain or white straw crops manured with 

 salt, were wheat, barley, oats, rye and Indian 

 corn ; turnips, mangel wurtzel, carrots, and pota- 

 toes, of bulbous, and tuberous roots ; peas, and 

 beans of the leguminous or pulse crops ; and flax 

 of the oily seed crops. 



" The general result of all the trials, which 

 were continued three years, proved that five bush- 

 els of salt per acre, under any circumstance of 

 soil, mode of application, or kind of crop, had no 

 sensible effect whatever on the growth of these 

 different crops ; and that when the quantity of 

 salt applied reached to 60 bushels per acre, vege- 

 tation did not take place at all, but absolute ster- 

 ility was the consequence. At harvest, when the 

 crop should have been reaped, the seed was found 

 in the soil in as sound and perfect a state as when 

 sown in the preceding spring. This quantity of 

 salt, however, when mixed with spit manure, and 

 dug in, previous to sowing the seed, proved less 

 injurious, as a few seeds vegetated and grew. In 

 the following spring, this piece of land, rendered 

 barren, by the application of 60 bushels of salt ap- 

 plied with the seed, was dug and sown with the 

 turni.is; the seed vegetated some days later than 

 that so^vn on the adjoining land, to which no sail 

 had been applied ; l)ut the turnip fly made its ap- 

 pearance on the salted and unsalted land at the 

 same time, and was equally successful in its rava- 

 ges on both crops. In every other trial, salt prov- 

 ed of no use whatever in preventing the turnip fly, 

 or checking its destructive progress. The next 

 following spring the land was sown with perenni- 

 al red clover ; and comparing the vegetation of 

 this seed, and the progress of the plants, on the 

 previous sterile land, with those sown on the un- 

 salted land adjoining, the progress of the plants on 

 each land was so uniform and equal as to prove 

 that the sterile effect of the salt had disa|)pear- 

 ed. 



" The various modes of applying salt above 

 mentioned, and the various kinds of crops submit- 

 ted to its influence, all tended to confirm oiiinion, 

 or rather prove it to be a fact, that salt retards the 

 vegetation of seeds, and if applied in too great a 

 quantity destroys vegetation altogether ; and that 

 salt renders manure, properly so called, less active 

 and less beneficial to the plants ; and also, .hat 

 the sterile effect to the soil is not lasting. 



" The only benefit accruing to tillage land from 

 the application of salt, was apparent in the in- 

 stance of the rich clayey loam, and rich sandy 

 soil ; here the straw was hght and the sample 

 fine ; the produce from the same soils without salt, 

 consisted chiefly of rank straw, with a light shriv- 

 elled sample of corn. The fact was that the soil 

 was too rich and highly manured to grow corn, 

 and the salt in this instance, so far reduced its 

 over fertile state, as to render it suitable for the 

 production of grain. Farmers, however, I be- 

 lieve, have seldom reason to require a remedy for 

 over richness of soil. 



" Beans and flax seemed to feel the sterile ef- 

 fects of salt more than any other of the crops 

 above named. A smaller quantity than 60 bush- 

 els of salt per acre, sown with the seed, rendered 

 the soil so barren that it retarded the vegetation 

 of the beans and flax. Carrots hardly seemed to 

 feel its effects after the vegetation of the seed ; 

 the fact is, that this root penetrates deep, and 

 soon passes beyond the reach or influence of the 

 salt when applied with the seed, or to the surface 

 of the land. 



" When salt was applied to grass land at the 

 rate of five bushels per acre, no effect whatever 

 was perceptible ; but when applied at the rate of 

 from 60 to 100 bushels per acre, the grass was 

 speedily destroyed, and did not again recover for 

 that season, nor indeed till fresh grass seed had 

 been sown and a top dressing of manure. 



"The rust in wheat generally makes its appear- 

 ance just about the period when the wheat comes 

 into flower. Solutions of salt of various degrees 

 of strength were ajiplied to the crop previous to 

 any appearance of the disease, and also afler the 

 symptoms became confirmed. A very weak solu- 

 tion had no efiiect whatever, and a solution strong 

 enough to destroy the fungus, or rust, destroyed 

 also the plant of vvli««t"itself. 



" Common salt in a state of perfect luirity con- 

 sists of soda 44, muriatic acid 50, and water of 

 crystahzation 6-100 ; but then conmion salt, such 

 as we buy it, oven for culinary purposes, is never 

 pure, but conii)iii*fl with various proportions of 

 Uiuriate of magnesia, sulphate of magnesia, and 

 sulphate of lime ; the first mentioned substance is 

 very deliquescent, and attracts moisture fi-om ev- 

 erything near it ; hence the appearance of land 

 where common salt has been applied ; after rain 

 it appears dark colored and damp ; during dry 

 sunshine, white and powdery. A consideration 

 of the nature of neutral salts, and of the vegetable 

 economy, might have led us a priori to the con- 

 clusion which the actual experience of salt, ap- 

 plied as a manure has demonstrated." 



The above experiments appear to have been 

 made with care, vei-y much diversified, on a large 

 scale, and for the express purpose of ascertaining 

 what value, if any, can be attached to salt as ma- 

 nure. The result was not in favor of salt, either 

 as a fertilizing substance, a preservative against 

 inildev,', or a destroyer of insects. Other trials 

 both in Europe and America give corresponding 

 results. Mr William M'Martie states in Loudon's 

 Magazine, vol. iv. p. 45G, tliat he tried salt on half 

 his carrot grounds, at the rate of a cubic inch to a 

 square yard, and that " the part that was salted 

 did not difler at all in appearance from that which 

 was not, with regard to the growth of the tops. 

 When the crop was taken up, I could not perceive 

 that there was the slightest difference in the two 

 parts ; therefore, it would appear that that quan- 

 tity of suit to a square yard does neither good nor 

 harm. I sowed the same proportion upon the 

 surface of my shallot ground, after the shallots 

 were above the ground, with the idea that it 

 would prevent that rot at the roots, which they 

 are so subject to ; but I could not perceive that it 

 had any efl^ect whatever. In the month of March, 

 I also sowed four square yards of grass with sah, 



