No. 10. 



Salt — A Fertilizer. 



311 



so that from the beginning to the end of tlie 

 process, they can scarcely be said to be 

 touched with the hand. 



The turnips with their tops on, arc dropped 

 , from the cart into the washing trough, and 

 when washed, are shoved along, and thrown 

 into steaming boxes level with tlie floor, on 

 which they are washed. These boxes have 

 a false bottom, or grating of iron, under 

 which the steam is introduced by a pipe, 

 and afler being sufticiently cooked, the end 

 of the box is dropped, and they are easily 

 shovelled into a cooling box, set still lower 

 than the other, for their reception. The 

 chaff is steamed in a large closet. All the 

 hay for the cattle is cut by a machine, on 

 an upper floor, and easily shovelled into this 

 closet, where it is steamed by a pipe intro- 

 duced from the common steam machine. 

 Every thing is contrived to simplify and re- 

 lieve labour. The food is then put into bar- 

 rows, and wheeled through the passages to 

 the different stock to be fed. The water 

 which comes from the turnips when steamed, 

 is always saved, and being mixed with a 

 small quantity of barley meal, is given to 

 the store hogs. It will ferment if left to 

 stand, and is deemed quite nutritious. Oat- 

 meal is used for the stock when barley meal 

 cannot be obtained, and is deemed much 

 better. 



The potatoes and turnips are all washed, 

 and shovelled, and steamed, by a single 

 young woman, stout, healthy, active, and 

 energetic, not in appearance much to my 

 taste, as " a fine gentleman," but entitled to 

 respect for her cheerfuhiess and good humor, 

 and for the spirit and fidelity with which she 

 performed her humble duty. Her master 

 spoke of her in the kindest manner, and in 

 looking at her in her laborious service, I 

 could not help thinking of that noble line, — 



"Act well your part; there all the honour lies." 



The manure of the stock is thrown into 

 the yards. Different kinds are mixed, and 

 some hogs kept among it, who, by stirring it 

 constantly, prevent its fermentation. The 

 liquid manure is all saved in tanks, and in 

 some cases, is with great success led over 

 the fields. 



With the water obtained from the drain- 

 age of the land, Mr. Scobell has created a 

 mill-power, which turns a wheel twenty- 

 eight feet in diameter. . With this is con- 

 nected a threshing-machine, a winnowing- 

 machine, and a flour and grain mill, for the 

 purposes of the establishment; and the same 

 power is applied to a mill for crushing and 

 sifting bones, to a chaff-cutter, and to a grind- 

 stone. 



From the situation of the ground, likewise 



on the side-hill, Mr. Scobell is enabled to 

 irrigate portions of his land, which he does 

 with great advantage. From the rocky cha- 

 racter of the country, the fences on the farm 

 are stone walls, a very desirable mode of 

 disposing of the surplus stone in the fields; 

 and his gates upon the farm are of iron, at 

 the moderate cost of 7s. 6d. per gate. They 

 appeared, however, quite too light and frail 

 for endurance. 



The fixtures on the farm are of the rudest 

 description, and no pretensions are made 

 to neatness or exactness; but every thing 

 seemed well cared for; and for economical 

 arrangements for effecting the purposes in- 

 tended, for a management combining the 

 lowest scale of expenditure with the high- 

 est scale of profit, few more successful ex- 

 amples have ever come under my observa- 

 tion. The courageous enterprise which 

 could boldly face the obstacles to be encoun- 

 tered in this most inauspicious tract of coun- 

 try, would qualify a man for a much higher 

 military commission than that which its pro- 

 prietor had borne, and the sound judgment 

 and skill which suggested and planned the 

 improvements, and carried them out with 

 such a creditable economy of labour, are 

 well worthy of commendation. — Colman''s 

 Tour. 



Salt"A Fertilizer. 



By C. N. Bement. 



The value of salt for agricultural pur- 

 poses, has long been known both in Europe 

 and in this country, and why it has not been 

 more generally used is beyond my compre- 

 hension. More than one hundred and fifty 

 years ago, Sir Hugh Piatt, an eminent writer 

 of that day, speaks very decidedly of the 

 benefits which might be derived from the 

 practice of sprinkling salt upon land, and 

 calls it the " sweetest and cheapest, and the 

 most philosophical of all others." He re- 

 lates the case of a man, who in passing over 

 a creek on the sea-shore, suffered his sack 

 of seed corn to fall into the water, and that 

 it lay there until it was low tide, when, 

 being unable to purchase more seed, he 

 sowed that which had been in the salt water, 

 and when the harvest time arrived he reaped 

 a crop far superior to any in the neighbour- 

 hood. The writer adds, however, that it 

 was supposed the corn would not fructify in 

 that manner unless it actually fell into the 

 water by chance; and therefore neither this 

 man nor any of his neighbours ever ventured 

 to make any further use of salt water. 



The same curious writer tells also of a 

 man who sowed a bushel of salt, long since, 

 upon a small plot of barren ground, and that 



