MANURES. 



MANURES. 



saltpetre the early cultivators of the earth were 

 probably assisted from noticing that those soils 

 which naturally produce saltpetre are ever 

 found to be of the most fertile description, and 

 that all those rich eastern fields which are so 

 celebrated in Palestine for their fertility, abound 

 in this salt. Three centuries since, according 

 to Googe, it was employed by the German 

 farmers. " Some saie coleworts prospereth 

 best in salt grounde, and therefore they use 

 to cast upon the grounde saltpetre or ashes." 

 In 1676, Evelyn, in his Discourse on Earth, tells 

 us, " rains and dews, cold and dry winters, with 

 store of snow, which I reckon equal to the 

 richest manures, impregnated as they are with 

 celestial nitre ;" which, although an error, yet 

 displays his opinion of the fertilizing power of 

 aitre. "I firmly believe," he adds, " that were 

 saltpetre, I mean fictitious nitre, to be obtained 

 in plenty, we should need but little other com- 

 posts to meliorate our grounds." Evelyn re- 

 commends saltpetre to be used in solution, 

 three pounds of this salt to fifteen gallons of 

 water mixed with earth. And in this way Sir 

 Kenelm Digby made some barley grow very 

 luxuriantly by watering it with a very weak 

 solution. 



It would be, perhaps, difficult to name any 

 other substance in the catalogue of modern 

 fertilizers whose powers have been so often 

 disputed as common salt. For this controversy 

 many reasons may be assigned. It has been 

 generally employed with little scientific accu- 

 racy, has been tried in a manner far too care- 

 less for any reliance to be placed upon the 

 majority of the reports which have been fur- 

 nished to us, and tor many years a prohibitory 

 duty rendered it inaccessible to the farmer; an 

 impost which has not very long been removed, 

 and which yet was the occasion of a great 

 variety of blundering trials, miscalled experi- 

 ments. The duty on salt was indeed one of 

 long continuance. It originated, as a war-tax, 

 in the ninth year of the reign of William the 

 Third, and was not removed until after an 

 arduous debate at the end of that of George 

 the Third. The price of salt, thus raised to 

 more than 20s. a bushel, was in consequence 

 too expensive a fertilizer to be employed by 

 the English farmers. During that long period 

 . t was known only in their traditions. Through 

 these they were told that it was formerly used 

 to kill worms and to destroy weeds, that it 

 cleansed fallows, increased the produce of light 

 arable soils, and sweetened grass. These re- 

 ported advantages were rendered more proba- 

 le by certain facts that had been forced a<- it 

 vere upon their attention. Every gardener 

 uas aware that the brine of the pickling tubs, 

 when poured over his heaps of weeds, not only 

 killed those weeds and their attendant seeds 

 and grubs, but that these heaps were then con- 

 verted into so many parcels of the most fertil- 

 izing manure, whose good effects, especially 

 upon potatoes and carrots, were very decided. 

 It was well known, too, that a single grain of 

 salt, placed upon an earth-worm, speedily de- 1 

 stroyed it; that if brine was poured upon a lawn, 

 from that spot all the earth-worms were imme- 

 diately ejected ; and that if it was sprinkled over 

 a portion of the grass, on this salted portion all ] 

 99 



the deer, or sheep, or horses of the park con- 

 stantly repaired, in preference to any other 

 part of the field. Salt evidently therefore de- 

 stroyed weeds and worms, and rendered grass 

 more palatable to live-stock ; and upon con- 

 sulting the old agricultural writers, it was 

 found that the notices of salt as a manure 

 were many and important, and that salt had 

 been employed in various agricultural opera- 

 tions from a very early period. Thus, it is 

 referred to by St. Luke, chap. xiv. 34 ; Virgil 

 reprobates a salt soil ; Cato recommends it for 

 cattle, hay, straw, &c.; as does Virgil (Lib.iii. 

 v. :<94). The early German farmers knew of 

 its value for sheep ; and for the same purpose, 

 in Spain, it has been employed from the earliest 

 ages. In 1750, Conrad Herebasch commends 

 it as a certain prevention of the " murrain or 

 rotte." In 1653, Sir Hugh Platt speaks of salt 

 as a fertilizer, in his usual visionary manner, 

 and details the result of a very successful 

 experiment on a "patch of ground" at Clapham, 

 from which some late writers upon the uses of 

 salt have led their readers into great blunders, 

 by stating this experiment to have been per- 

 formed upon an acre of land. 



The use of salt by the cultivator, since the 

 repeal of the duties in 1823, has been consider- 

 able, however, in many districts of England, in 

 spite of these blundering instructions, ill-con- 

 trived experiments, and ignorant conclusions. 

 If to this be added the natural difficulty of ob- 

 taining correct results in any experiments in 

 which vegetable life is concerned, we need no 

 longer be surprised that many contradictory 

 statements have been made with regard not 

 only to salt, but to all other fertilizers. 



A mixture of salt. and lime was recommended 

 as a manure by the celebrated German chemist, 

 Glauber, in his "Hints for the Prosperity of 

 Agriculture," more than two centuries since. 

 He at some length described the mode of pre- 

 paring it, and characterized the compound of 

 soda and chloride of calcium produced as 

 "most fit for dunging lands, and to be used in- 

 stead of the common beasts' dung." (Pros- 

 perity of Germany, vol. i. p. 417.) Christopher 

 Packe, who, in 1688, published a huge folio 

 translation of Glauber's works, enforces the 

 value of this fertilizing compound with much 

 earnestness in his preface, describing it " as 

 the cheapest of all mixtures for the enriching 

 of poor and barren land." The want of scien- 

 tific knowledge amongst farmers, and the hin- 

 drance to the use of salt through the duties 

 which were so long imposed upon it, naturally 

 prevented any extensive use of this fertilizer; 

 yet there have been many accidental or occa- 

 sional notices of its value. Thus, for a great 

 many years, it has been the practice of the 

 farmers of Essex, and other English maritime 

 counties, to steep their seed-wheat in sea-water, 

 strengthened with salt, until it is of a sufficient 

 gravity to float an egg, and then roll the brined 

 seed in lime. This they consider not only pre- 

 vents smut in the corn, but promotes the gene- 

 ral health and vigour of the plant. The Essex 

 farmers have a tradition that this plan was dis- 

 covered by the accident of a farmer's labourer 

 dropping a sack of seed-wheat from the boat in 

 which he was crossing the mouth of the River 

 3 u 2 785 



