SALT, COMMON. 



SALT, COMMON. 



With potatoes. There have been various ex- 

 periments made with salt as a manure for po- 

 tatoes. The author of this work, in 1817, on a 

 gravelly soil, at Great Totham, in Essex, made 

 the following trials : 



1. Soil simple, produce per acre , - - 120 



2. Soil with 20 bushels of salt in September' - 192 



3. Soil with stable manure, 20 loada in the 



spring of the year ----- 219 



4. Soil with 20 loads of manure and 20 bushels 



of salt 234 



5. Soil with 40 bushels of salt alone - - - 192 



6. Soil with 40 bushels of salt and 20 loada of 



manure ------- 244 



The Rev. Edmund Cartwright, of Hollenden 

 House, in Kent, in 1804, made various import- 

 ant trials of salt as a manure for potatoes. 

 The soil on which the experiments were made 

 consisted of three-fourths sand. See POTATOES. 



" Of ten different manures," said this agri- 

 culturist, " salt, a manure hitherto of an am- 

 biguous character, is (one only excepted) supe- 

 rior to them all. The effect of the mixture of 

 salt and soot is remarkable." The writer of 

 this witnessed the same result on carrots, at 

 the rate of 10 bushels of each per acre. 



Vermin. With regard to the destruction of 

 vermin by means of salt, we may safely assert, 

 that there is, perhaps, no agricultural use of 

 common salt more undoubted. The effect, too, 

 is direct, and the result immediately apparent. 

 For this purpose, from 5 to 10 bushels per acre 

 are sufficient. The agriculturist need be under 

 no apprehension that the salt will destroy his 

 crop, for 20 bushels of salt per acre may be 

 applied to young wheat with perfect safety: I 

 have seen even 25 bushels used with advantage. 

 See INSECTS. 



In reference to Weeds. Salt has been of late 

 years used at the rate of from 20 to 40 bushels 

 per acre, to kill weeds and to cleanse fallows, 

 with great advantage ; it also, in the large pro- 

 portion we have named, will destroy coarse, 

 sour grass, &c. ; and though, for a time, all 

 vegetation is destroyed, yet, in a short period, 

 a. much superior turf is produced. If the culti- 

 vator can collect weeds, parings of turf, ditches, 

 banks, &c., of the most foul description, and 

 spread evenly on the surface of the heap half 

 a bushel of salt to every ton of the collection, 

 he will find every weed, in the course of a few 

 weeks, killed and dissolved away. This plan 

 I have long followed myself, on a light, gravelly 

 soil ; and upon spreading this salted mixture, 

 at the rate of 14 or 15 loads per acre, its bene- 

 ficial effects can be traced to an inch. I have 

 principally used it as a dressing for turnips 

 and oats. 



In the Garden. Salt has been employed by 

 the gardener for many purposes; most com- 

 monly on lawns, at the rate of 10 bushels per 

 acre, to prevent worm-casts ; and on gravel 

 walks in a larger proportion, to kill weeds ; it 

 may be employed, however, as a fertilizer in 

 gardens with decided advantage. I have wit- 

 nessed the results of the following experiments 

 made by my brother, Mr. George Johnson, at 

 Great Totham; and I the more readily give 

 them a place here, from knowing with what 

 care they were made: 



.The soil was composed of 



Ktones and gravel - 

 Vegetable fibre ... 

 Soluble matter ... 

 Carbonates of lime and magnesia 

 Oxide of iron - ... 

 Animal and vegetable matter 

 Alumina - ... 



Silica 



Loss 



tr 

 is 

 I 



4-5 



100 



Windsor beans were sown on it 



9 Produce per 



Acre. 



Soil treated with 20 bushels of salt per acre, 



bushels 217 



Soil simple 135 



Onions 



Tooi. ewt qn. Ite. 



Halt 20 bushel, manure 20 tons, per acre 3 13 3 12 

 Manure 3 10 2 It 



Carrots 



1. Soil without any manure - - - 13 4 



2. Soil with 20 tons of manure - - 22 18 M 



3. Soil with 20 bushels of salt - - 18 3 



4. Soil with 20 bushels of salt, and 30 



tons of manure - - - - 23 8 1 19 



Parsnips 



1. Soil with 20 tons of manure, and iO 



bushels of salt - - - - 6 15 



2. Soil with SO tons manure - - - 6 11 1 1 



Early potatoes 



1. Soil simple .... 



2. Soil with 20 bushels of salt - 



584 



Beets 



Ton*, ewt. qn. 



1. Soil simple 4 10 1 



2. Soil with 20 bushels of salt - - - 4 8 3 



3. Soil with 20 tons of salt, and 20 tons of 



manure - - - - - -700 



4. Soil with 20 tons of manure - - - 6 10 j 



In preventing clubbing in the roots of some 

 of the brassica tribe, Mr. Johnson found salt 

 highly useful ; he states, in some observations 

 on this disease read to the Horticultural So- 

 ciety of London, October 16, 1821: "Some 

 cauliflowers were planted upon a light silicious 

 soil, which had previously been manured with 

 well-putrefied stable manure, and over one- 

 third of the allotted space was sown salt, at 

 the rate of 20 bushels per acre, immediately 

 before planting in July, 1821. The previous 

 crop had been broccoli. Fifty-four plants were 

 set on the two-thirds unsalted, and 26 on the 

 one-third salted: the result has been, that of 

 the 54 unsalted, 15 have been diseased and un- 

 productive, but of the 26 salted only 2." 



There is little doubt, but that salt might b 

 much more extensively employed by florist 

 than at present. A very small quantity of sal 

 added to the water in which flowers are placed, 

 adds considerably to their duration. There are 

 many bulbous-rooted flowers which flourish 

 best in the immediate vicinity of the sea. Mr. 

 Edwin Greville remarked, in 1824, that some 

 common salt applied at the rate of 16 bushels 

 per acre to a portion of a bed of stocks, in his 

 garden at Wyaston, in Derbyshire, made them 

 grow most decidedly stronger and finer, and 

 bloom much more perfectly than those grow- 

 ing in the same bed unsalted. " There was no 

 possibility of error or doubt on the subject," 

 said my intelligent informant. I have given 

 the experiments of Dr. Priestley upon various 

 plants vegetating in salt and water. He found 



971 



