SALT, COMMON. 



The following table contains the results of 

 the experiments made at Woburn, 1818-19, 

 by the late Mr. George Sinclair, with his usual 

 scientific accuracy. I would direct the farmer's 

 attention to this table, as containing a mass of 

 valuable information. 



SALT, COMMON. 



The soil on which these experiments were 

 made was sandy, and the plots each contained 

 36 square feet ; the Talavera wheat was drilled 

 into the soil November 5th, and reaped August 

 2d, 1818. 



At a Manure for Grass Land, Meadows, fyc., salt 

 has been used in all parts of England, with 

 varying success. It always, however, sweetens 

 the herbage. It has been employed at the rate 

 of 6 to 16 bushels per acre, and where the pri- 

 mary object has been the destruction of the 

 old turf, even 30 to 40 bushels have been suc- 

 cessfully employed on the same extent of land. 

 It has the effect of completely preventing worm- 

 casts on lawns, &c. 



In a letter with which I was favoured from 

 Mr. Collyns, of Kenton, Devonshire, 1826, he 

 says "One of my neighbours writes me, 'In 

 using salt as a manure on grass land, I have 

 found the salted portions not to be affected by 

 severe frosty nights, when every blade of grass 

 on the unsalted portions has been in a frozen 

 state. I observe, too, that it is destructive to 

 every kind of grub and worm ; and I am con- 

 vinced, where it has been used with judgment, 

 that it has not failed.' Another intelligent 

 neighbour," continues Mr. Collyns, " whose 

 farm is almost entirely a light black sand, 

 writes, 'I have found salt answer my most 

 sanguine expectations for barley, oats, pota- 

 toes, and turnips, both as to the increased 

 quantity and improved quality of the crops, of 

 which I can now give ocular demonstration : 

 my barley and oats, which used to yield me 

 only 15 to 20 bushels per acre, now yield from 

 40 to 45. My wheat is certainly much im- 

 970 - 



proved in quality, but I expected more in quan- 

 tity. I have had 35 bushels of wheat from an 

 acre dressed with 10 bushels of salt ; and from 

 the same field last year, after the same quan- 

 tity of salt, 140 bags of potatoes per acre. This 

 year again, dressed with 10 bushels of salt, I 

 have not more than 20 bushels of wheat per 

 acre, but the quality very superior indeed, and 

 the root of clover in it very fine and luxuriant. 

 In every field I have salted, I find the grass 

 very much superior to any produced before the 

 use of salt.' I have since," adds Mr. Collyns, 

 " gone over his farm, and am astonished at the 

 verdant pasturage, in what used to be coarse 

 and rushy meadows. In this arable land, he 

 never got more than 10 bushels of wheat per 

 acre until he used salt ; so that this is also a 

 decided improvement." 



In Suffolk, according to a statement furnish- 

 ed to me by Mr. Broke, of Capel, near Ipswich, 

 "In the month of April, 1821, 6 bushels of salt 

 manure were applied to half an acre of red 

 clover ; the soil good turnip land, not sharp ; 

 extent of the field 10 acres. The salted clover 

 at first looked very yellow, and apparently in- 

 jured, but it soon began to recover, and when 

 mown, the increased produce was, at the very 

 least, 10 cwt. per acre; and the aftermath pro- 

 portionally good ; the cattle eating it down 

 closer, and in preference to any other part of 

 the field." 



