106 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



of salt, as manure, has been upon too limited 

 a scale to justify any posiiive conclusion regardinor 

 its merits*. Indeed, like almost every question 

 connected with experiments on agriculture, this 

 has given rise to opinions so utterly discordant, as 

 to leave the decision of its value in much the 

 eame doubt as when it was first broached. 

 Staleraenis have been brought forward by many 

 eminent farmers, which, though made upon 

 apparently strong grounds, and without any 

 doubt of their candor, yet broadly contradict each 

 other, and the evidence produced before the 

 board of trade in 1817, and belbre a committee of 

 the house of commons, appointed, in 1818, to 

 consider the subject of the salt duties, although 

 certainly in most instances loudly commendatory 

 of its employment (or the general purposes of 

 husbandry, has left the subject of its application 

 to the land in nearly similar uncertainty. 



It was represented as operating as a manure 

 upon arable land by its tendency to promote 

 putrefaction, as well as by stimulating the powers 

 of vegetation through its absorption of moisture 

 from the atmosphere ; as being destructive of 

 weeds and insects, and a preventive of rust ; as 

 improving the herbage of grass-land, destroying 

 the moss, and rendering fodder palatable which 

 would be otherwise refused by cattle ; and as 

 acting as a condiment conducive to the health of 

 all animals. The abandonm.ent of the duty was 

 therefore hailed by its advocates as a special boon 

 to the agricultural interest, and it has certainly 

 been proved in numberless instances to have been 

 successfully applied to some soils under peculiar 

 circumstances ; yet, except in cases where its 

 use has been rather governed by local facilities 

 than by any conviction of its real value, farmers 

 do not appear to have generally availed them- 

 eelves of its advantages as a manure, (hough it is 

 gradually creeping into use for live stock. It is, 

 indeed, admitted on all hands to be noxious to 

 the whole tribe of slugs, and worms of that de- 

 scription, though we have yet no proof which 

 can be relied on of its preventing the ravages of 

 the fiy on turnips ; its efiects in correcting the 

 faults of sour pasturage and spoiled fodder seem 

 also to rest upon grounds which can hardly be 

 doubled j. There are also proofs of its power 

 in checking the rust in corn ; fur although that 



• The duty amounted to about 301. per ton, the 

 original value being under 20s. ; and although, in the 

 preparation of the brine, there is a refuse part formed 

 by the separation of the grosser particles from the 

 pure salt, and which was for a long time sold to the 

 farmers duty free, yet this was afterwards prohibited 

 and the whole of the foul salt, which was produced in 

 one of the districts of Cheshire to the yearly amount 

 of near 120,000 bushels, was carefully swept away 

 after the process of manufacture was completed, and 

 then in the presence of the exciseman thrown into the 

 river Weever. 



t Salt destroys vermin by making them void the 

 contents of their bodies ; such evacuations being too 

 powerful for them to withstand.— Lord Dundonald on 

 Chemical Agric, p. 138. See an experiment in proof 

 of this, in the Farmers' Magazine, vol. xviii, p. 440, 

 in which it is stated that grubs, full of food, when 

 placed in fresh earth in which some young roots of 

 grass were transplanted after being very slightly 

 pickled with common salt, were in 24 hours reduced 

 to mere skins, and two out of three dead. Also 

 Johnson's Observations on Salt, 8th edit., pp. 8 and 10. 



disease has been generally attributed to the vary- 

 ing changes ot the atmosphere, yet it was stated 

 in the evidence of Dr. Paris belbre the salt com- 

 mittee, that it was the practice of many farmers 

 in Cornwall to spread about 30 bushels of salt, 

 the refuse of the pilchard fishery, weighing 56 lbs. 

 each, per statute acre upon their land, a fortnight 

 previous to the sowing of turnips ; and they all 

 agreed that they never had any rust on the PjU 

 lowing crop of wheat where this was adopted, 

 though before tliey were greatly afli'ected by it. 

 In the course of a very minute inquiry into the 

 causes of rust, undertaken some years ago in this 

 country, and afterwards continued at different 

 periods on the continent, it also appeared, that 

 it was never experienced in the immediate vici- 

 nity of the sea, unless when the ground was 

 greatly overmanured ; and that when sea-ooze 

 or sand was employed as manure, it was prevent- 

 ed*. This, however, does not apply to the prac- 

 tice of steeping seed-wheat, which can only have 

 the effect of purifying it, but cannot, it is presumed, 

 prevent the grain from afterwards receiving infec- 

 tion from the air, and which, indeed, applies 

 rather to smut than to rust or mildew. Its influ- 

 ence in forwarding the putrefaction of manure 

 depends upon the quantity in which it is employ- 

 ed f; and although its property of absorbing 

 moisture from the atmosphere, and retaining it 

 in the ground, constitutes, perhaps, its chief value 

 when applied to light soils and in dry summers, 

 yet, on heavy land and in wet seasons, its power 

 seems to have little effect : it has therefore fallen 

 into disrepute with many persons who have tried 

 it without due attention to these circumstances. 

 It is, indeed, evident, that the extravagant expec- 

 tations entertained of it by some, and the disap- 

 pointment experienced by others, have been 

 occasioned by the contingent nature of its cha- 

 racter, which, depending not alone upon the 

 amount in which it is used, but also on the quality 

 of the soil and on the stale oi" the weather, must 

 render it occasionally ineffectual. That it con- 

 tributes to the health of animals is a fact now 

 universally granted ; though its specific virtues 

 when administered in diflerent quantities to stock 

 of various species, age, and condition, have not 

 been yet sufficiently ascertained, nor have we 



* See the report of the Committee, p. 30; also 

 Cuthbert Johnson's Essay on Salt, p. 49; Sir John 

 Sinclair on the Rust in Wheat, Farm. Mag., vol. xix. ; 

 Ibid., vol. XX. p. 435; and Sir Thomas Bernard on 

 Salt, p. 278. It is also stated in Dr. Thomas Thomp- 

 son's System of Chemistry, that " in the water given 

 to plants which are natives of the sea-coast, a minute 

 infusion of common salt would consult the natural cir- 

 cumstances of that description of vegetables, and that 

 they languish without it;" which is confirmed by 

 Professor Davy's experiments on the effect of different 

 salts conveyed in water to the roots of plants as 

 recorded in liis Elements of Agricultural Cnemistry, 

 4to , p. 296. 



f If used in large quantities, it is antiseptic ; but if 

 moderately mixed up with composts, it has been found 

 to promote the putiefaction of the vegetable and ani- 

 mal substances which they contain. The quantity 

 has, indeed, been stated as high as a ton to the acre ; 

 but this is either foul salt, which has been used in the 

 fisheries, or the refuse of brine which has been manu- 

 factured, and which cannot be estimated at more than 

 one-half, or perhaps one-third, of the weight of pure 

 salt. — Sir H. Davy, Elem. of Agric. Chem., 4to, p. 

 29S ; Cheshire Report, p. 237. 



