112 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



the salt was laid was by far the healthiest and the 

 most vicTorous*. In Ayrsiiire it has been mixed 

 with 32 bushels of lime-shells, and either spread 

 sinsly or made up into a compost with 40 cart- 

 loads of peatmoss, and has thus been found pecu- 

 Harly favorable to the growth of wheat and beans. 

 In those parts of the coast of Cornwall where the 

 pilchard fisheries occasion considerable quantities 

 of salt to be condemned, it is also much used as 

 a preparation (or turnips in composts mixed up 

 with seasand, and spoiled fi!^h, dunu, and rotten 

 slaty earth, in vnrious proportions, to which from 

 40 to 60 bushels of lime are commonly added. 

 The quantity of this kind of compost commonly 

 applied to an acre, is usually about a ton of the 

 fish and salt, — more or less as the fish prevails, 

 and in that country it has been long considered as 

 a most valuable and laslini; manure, though pro- 

 bably its effects may be at least equally due to the 

 oil and refuse fish, as to the salt with which it is 

 combined.! It may also be advantageously 

 mixed with stable-dung alone. 



On meadow ground, Mr. Hollinshead advises 

 the farmer Mo sow six bushels of salt per aci'e, 

 immediately after the hay is got in ; which will 

 not only assist vegetation, and cover the face of 

 the ground with grass, but will induce the cattle 

 to eat up the eddish.' ]Pov pasture land, he how- 

 ever recommends the application of foul salt at 

 the rale of 16 bushels per acre ; or, which he 

 seems to prefer, to apply it in the same quantity, 

 mixing with every 16 bushels of the sail 20 loads 

 of earth, turning it two or three times to incor- 

 porate it, and laying it on in the auiumn. 



In frosty weather, it has excited the surprise of 

 many persons that, when the land was quite white 

 through heavy hoar-frost, crround which had been 

 top-dressed with salt remained perfectly green, 

 and apparently free from its effects. It is, indeed 

 known to chemists to be an enemy to congela- 

 tion ; but we have, aa yet, no practical know- 

 ledge of its effects, in that view, upon vegetation, 

 nor are we aware that its application would tend 

 to preserve crops from the consequences of frost. 



The quantity of pure salt recommended to be 

 applied to land as manure is from 4 to 16 bushels 

 per acre, beyond which it has been generally 

 found to become injurious to crops when sown 

 with the seed ; but, if laid in the autumn upon 

 land intended for a clean summer fallow, from 

 30 to 40 bushels may be spread, according to the 

 condition and nature of the soil. In the directions 

 for its use given in the recent treatises of Mr. 

 Cuthbert Johnson, from 5 to 20 bushels are 

 assumed as the limits of its application to different 

 crops ; and although we think that, in most cases, 

 the latter quantity would be found too large, and 

 that, in all, the rules for its adoption savor^some- 

 what too much of theory, yet as, with due discre- 

 tion, in many instances they may serve as guides 

 for its employment, we here transcribe them with 

 very slight alteration : with this observation, 

 that they only apply to the first year's manuring ; 

 though it has been stated by" Mr. Hollinshead 

 and others, that an annual application of a much 

 less quantity will always keep the land in a state 

 of the greatest fertility : — 



* Cheshire Report, p. 237. 



t SirH. Davy, Elem. of Agric. Chem.,4to., p. 295. 



For wheat and rye, 10 to 20 bushels per acre 

 put on alter tlie seed has been harrowed in ; the 

 earlier the belter, but may be done until March. 

 For barley, oais, peas, and beans, 5 to 16 

 bushels per acre. For these crops it has how- 

 ever been found beneficial, in the west of Eng- 

 land, to lay it on after the seed has been har- 

 rowed in ; but in counties less humid, it would 

 be more advantageous to spread U in January 

 or February. 



For turnips, and most green crops, 5 to 15 

 bushels per acre, put on about a month before 

 eeed-time ; or in January or February, as the 

 salt will then meet the insects in their weakest 

 slate. Mr. G. Sinclair, however, says — that, 

 lor the destruction of slugs, salt should be used 

 in not less quantities than 10 or 15 bushels per 

 acre, applied to the surface of the land. 



For potatoes, 10 to 20 bushels per acre in 

 January or February, if no other manure be 

 used ; but if a light dressing of dung be intend- 

 ed at the time of planting, then half the salt 

 to be spread after the plants have been covered 

 in. 



For hops, 15 to 20 bushels per acre, in No- 

 vember or December. 



For grass-land, 10 to 15 bushels per acre in 

 the autumn, and, if possible, not later than No- 

 vember ; but may be put on, without injury, 

 until February. If applied to the extent of 40 

 to 50 bushels, the old turf will be com[)!etely 

 destroyed, but has been generally succeeded 

 by a new sward of sweeter herbage. 

 In Dacre's ' Teslin)onies,' which contain a 

 voluminous mass of facts adduced in favor of the 

 use of salt for agricultural purposes, it is said, that 

 although the fertilizing qualities of salt, when 

 used by itself as a manure, are very great, it yet 

 requires discretion to guard against putting on too 

 much , a few bushels to an acre are sufficient, if 

 any large quantity be put on, it will by its pun- 

 gency and strength destroy vegetation for a time ; 

 but afterwards, when the salt has been well dis- 

 solved in the soil, the land becomes very rich. That 

 when mixed with dung and other manure, it is 

 highly efficacious ; but the safest way of using it 

 is, to sprinkle it occasionally over the dung in the 

 cattle-yards, that it may amalgamate with it, and 

 ferment. 



The effects, as ascertained by the result of its 

 use upon the continent, are described by that emi- 

 nent agriculturist. Von Thaer, to be nearly similar 

 to those we have stated. VVIien applied in large 

 quantities, vegetation seems completely stopped ; 

 but when the salt has been washed in by the 

 rain, and partly decomposed by the mould, it adds 

 to its force during several following years. On 

 rich land, when spread in small quantities, it pro- 

 duces very sensibly favorable effects, though of 

 short duration ; but if laid upon a poor soil, in 

 an equal quantity, it has been found wholly inef- 

 fectual*. 



* Principes Raisonnes d'AgricuIture, 2nde ed.,tome 

 ii. p. 432. 



