312 



Salt — a Fertilizer. 



Vol. X. 



to that day it remained more fresh and green 

 than any of the ground round about it. 



Dr. Brovvnrig, who wrote more than a 

 century ago, in speaking of salt, says, "it is 

 dispersed over all nature; it is treasured up 

 in the bowels of the earth ; it impregnates 

 the ocean; it descends in rains; it fertilizes 

 the soil; it arises in vegetables; and from 

 them is conveyed into animals." 



In the neighbourhood of the salt works in 

 Great Britain, the value of salt as a manure 

 is well known and acknowledged ; it is said 

 "that when wheat and barley have follov»ed 

 turnips on land which had been salted, the 

 ensuing crop has invariably escaped mildew, 

 although that disease had affected all the 

 grain upon the lands adjacent, on which salt 

 had not been used." 



It has been asserted that salt is the mother 

 of all manures, as every kind of manure is 

 higher or lower in value according to the 

 salt it produces; and every kind of manure 

 is portioned out to the land according to the 

 quantity of salt or nitre it is thought to con- 

 tain. 



"Nothing in nature," said Ilollingshead, 

 " is so powerful as salt to meliorate strong 

 and stiiF soils, and also to give moisture to 

 dry ground; it is also a certain destruction 

 to weeds and insects. Besides its efficacy 

 on corn and fallow ground, its excellent 

 qualities in giving luxuriance and salubrity 

 to grass lands, are peculiarly worthy the at- 

 tention of graziers and the breeders of cat- 

 tle." 



" Soils," says an old writer, " which are 

 subject to the grub, and must be fertilized 

 by common dung, which is a proper nest for 

 the mother beetle to deposit its eggs, must 

 be well impregnaied with the brine of dis- 

 solved salt, after the dung is first cut up." 



The efficacy of salt in destroying noxious 

 weeds, grubs, and insects, is well known in 

 all parts; but a dose sufficient to kill weeds, 

 would also destroy the cultivated crops; 

 therefore great attention and caution should 

 be taken in not applying too much, when in- 

 tended to fertilize the soil. 



The quantity of salt which it would be 

 advisable to use per acre, for the respective 

 crops and upon the different kinds of land, 

 will be best learned by instituting a set of 

 experiments upon every distinct species of 

 grain and roots. Cold, wet land, requiring 

 more, and loose, light land, though it be 

 poor, requiring less. Four bushels to the 

 acre, harrowed in after ploughing, has been 

 found a sufficient quantity on most soils fur 

 corn and potatoes; but the best way of all 

 others for ascertaining this point, would be 

 for every one to depend upon the results of 

 his own experiments. 



To ascertain the exact quantity of salt 

 which may be necessary for tlie different 

 kinds of land, and to appreciate the benefits 

 which result from its employment in all the 

 various modes of culture adopted in this 

 country, will require several long series of 

 experiments; we would, therefore, suggest 

 to the executive committee of our State Ag- 

 ricultural Society, that they offer rewards 

 to such persons as shall give them an ac- 

 count of the best experiments with this 

 mineral substance, in the different branches 

 of farming and general agriculture. 



The safest way for a farmer to adopt, is 

 to use his salt sparingly at first, and in all 

 cases to leave a small portion of the same 

 land without salt, so that the real effects 

 produced by the salt may be, by comparison, 

 in every instance, self-evident and palpable. 



That salt is an excellent manure, experi- 

 ence, the most satisfactory of all evidences, 

 clearly proves. 



It is stated in an English publication, that 

 " a fanner in the county of Sussex, some 

 years since, had a field, one part of which 

 was very wet and rushy, and that grass pro- 

 duced upon it was of so sour and unpleasant 

 a kind that the cattle would not graze upon 

 it; he tried several methods to improve it, 

 but to little purpose; at last having lieard of 

 the benefits of salt as a manure, he deter- 

 mined to try that; for which purpose he 

 procured a quantity of rock salt, which in a 

 random way, without any regard to the pre- 

 cise quantity, he threw u[)on the rushy 

 ground, fencing it off from the other part 

 of the field, the effect of which was a total 

 disappearance of every kind of vegetation. 

 In a short time, however, it produced the 

 largest quantity of mushrooms ever seen 

 upon an equal space of ground in the coun- 

 try. These, in the spring following, were 

 succeeded by the most plentiful and luxu- 

 riant crop of grass, far exceeding the other 

 part of the field in the richness of its ver- 

 dure and the quickness of its growth; the 

 cattle were remarkably fond of it, and 

 though the salt was laid on it twenty years 

 before, this part is still superior to the rest 

 of the field." 



An interesting detail from the Rev. E. 

 Cartwright, will be found in the 4th vol. of 

 Communications to the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, England, which is conclusive as to the 

 application of salt as a manure for potatoes. 

 It appears from this communication, that the 

 experiment could not have been tried on a 

 soil better adapted to give impartial results. 

 Often diSerent manures which were resort- 

 ed to, most of them of known and acknow- 

 ledged efficacy, one only excepted, salt vras 

 superior to them all. Its effects, when com- 



