192 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



SALT AS A MANURE. 



Friend Brown : — I wish to know how salt is 

 to be applied to the soil, — whether it should be 



mixed with barn-manure, or sown broad-cast? 



If mixed with manure, in what proportion ? If 



sown, how much to an acre, at what season, and 



what kind of soil is most benefited by it ? Would j y* 



it be advantageous to use it when barley is to be j might work better on rocky land, than the Uni- 



grown ? How would it aftect pasture land? And|versal, 



gauged to a certain depth, they work well — but 

 in stony land they hold hard and don't turn well. 



Answer. — We hear the Universal Plow spok- 

 en highly of — have used one to plow several 

 acres of sward land, and find it to work admira- 

 It is quite probable that a shorter plow 



further, I would solicit the opinion of some of 

 your expei'ienced correspondents on the profit 

 likely to accrue from purchasing salt at 20 cts. 

 per bushel for agricultural purposes. 



Would you consider it profitable to buy air- 

 slaked lime, at eight cents per bushel, to put on 

 land ? A. C. BuFFUM. 



North Berwick, 3d Mo. 3d, 1859. 



Remarks. — We have often used salt as a fer- 

 tilizer, but have not pursued the experiments 

 with suflScient accuracy to make them worthy of 

 note. So we refer to others, and find plenty of 

 evidence that salt may be used profitably as a 

 fertilizer where it can be obtained at low rates 

 — where it is dirty or in a damaged state so as 

 to make it unfit for common purposes. 



Salt renders dry loams more susceptible of ab- 

 sorbing moisture from the air, and this is of 

 great importance, because those soils which ab- 

 sorb the greatest proportion of water from the 

 atmosphere, are always the most valuable to the 

 cultivator. On heavy undrained lands it would 

 not act beneficially 



When sprinkled slightly over manure heaps it 

 checks the escape of the carbonate of the ammo- 

 nia, and tends to prevent undue fermentation 

 It not only acts on vegetation as a stimulant, but 

 serves as a direct constituent, or food, of some 

 kinds of plants. 



Applied to grain crops, on light soils, at the 

 rate of 500 pounds to the acre, salt increases the 

 produce of seed, and very much improves its 

 weight and quality per bushel. On grass land 

 and clover, salt has a good effect, rendering the 

 •herbage more palatable to stock. 



Mangold wurtzel, manured with salt mixed 

 with farm-yard dung, at the rate of ten or twelve 

 bushels, or even more, per acre, grows luxuri- 

 antly. It would undoubtedly be useful on a bar- 

 ley crop, because the soil adapted to that plant, 

 is the kind of soil most benefited by salt. 



We do not doubt but that salt at 20 cts., and 

 air-slaked lime at 8 cts. per bushel, would be 

 profitable on land where they are actually needed. 



universal plow — BLOODY MILK — FLEMISH 



BEAUTY PEAR. 

 Do you know how the Universal Plow works 

 on rocky and stony ground, whether greensward 

 or old ground, rigged with the intervale mould ? 

 It looks in the cut as if it might work well. The 

 Eagle of Nourse, Mason & Co., are of good 

 workmanship and material, and in clear land, 



Bunches came on the teats of my young cow, 

 and she gave bloody milk ; I gave her garget, 

 and the blood ceased to come, but the bunches 

 remain. What shall I do for her ? 



Answer. — Give her six drops of the tincture 

 of Aconite, on some meal wet up with water, 

 every other day for ten days. 



Do Flemish Beauty pears often crack ? I had 

 some that cracked so badly last year as to be 

 worthless ; they were on gravelly and stony land. 

 One tree had lime, ashes and soap suds around 

 it. A Subscriber. 



Answer. — Are you quite sure that your pear 

 is the Flemish Beauty? It has not the habit of 

 cracking. This pear must be gathered earlier 

 than most others, even before the fruit parts 

 readily from the tree, and then ripened in the 

 house. If left to ripen on the tree it becomes 

 soft and flavorless, and decays soon. 



HUNGARIAN GRASS. 



Is it an annual plant, or is it of the nature of 

 other grasses ? Will you tell us all about the 

 Honey Blade Hungarian Grass Seed? 



Cambridge, Vt., 1859. Green Grass. 



Remarks. — We have quite recently given an 

 account of this grass. We have not grown it, 

 but understand that it is an annual plant, requir- 

 ing to be sov/ed every spring, like millet. The 

 "Honey Blade" is a honied term to catch gulls 

 with. Test it by the rod rather than by the acre 

 — by purchasing and sowing only a few pounds 

 of the seed at first. 



ARE HENS PROFITABLE? 



I make the keeping of hens more profitable 

 than any other stock, compared with the capital 

 invested. I feed my young chickens with corn 

 meal four times a day, and plenty of skimmed 

 milk. When old enough to lay, I give them all 

 the corn and oats they will eat, with gravel, lime, 

 and frequently cayenne pepper, mixed with their 

 meal. Twelve hens will lay 142 dozen of eggs 

 in a year, or 142 each, and I call that doing well 

 — though they will sometimes do more. 



East New Sharon, Me., 1859. A. R. Hall. 



ARTICHOKES. 

 A correspondent of the Cultivator says that 

 2000 bushels of this root could be raised on one 

 acre. I have no doubt of this, for from a single 

 rather small tuber I dug in the fall nearly or 

 quite one peck. This root threw up three stocks, 

 yielding as above. I. 



