246 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



May 



EXTRACTS AND KEPLIES. 



SALT FOR WHEAT — BEANS — PUMPKINS — ROOTS. 



"Will some of the many readers of the New 

 England Farmer inform me if common, coarse 

 salt is beneficial to a wheat crop ; if so, how much 

 should be applied to the acre ? When and how 

 applied : Also is it profitable to plant beans 

 among corn ? Should they be planted in the hills 

 or b-twcen them ? Are pumpkins profitable to 

 plant with corn ? Which is the most profitable 

 crop, under the same circumstances, for feeding 

 stock, — turnips, beets or potatoes ? 



Brother farmers, and Mr. Editor, please give us 

 more "Extracts and Replies;" they are just what 

 we want for information. Let them be brief and 

 to the point ; and relate to all the different modes 

 of stock raisisig, applying manures, the cultivation 

 and harvesting of crops, and all that pertains to 

 farming, togetlicr with the results of all experi- 

 ments, whether successes or failures. Natt. 



Danville, Vt., March 16, 1869. 



Remarks. — The results of experiments that 

 have been made in the use of salt for manurial 

 purposes have beea so diverse that we suppose 

 there is no settled opinion as to its value. Its use 

 for this purpose seems to have been known in 

 Bible times, and reports of experiments with it are 

 found in our oldest agricultural works, and yet it 

 . is but little employed by our best practical farmers. 

 It is also recommended for its destructive effects 

 on thistles and other weeds. As a stimulant it 

 must be classed with special manures, and its 

 beneficial effect depends on special circumstances, 

 which arc not well understood. Perhaps this is 

 one of the agricultural riddles which our ftirmers' 

 colleges are to solve. A correspondent of the 

 Germantoion Telegraph divided an acre of clover 

 land into strips of thirty feet wide. To the first 

 strip he applied plaster broadcast, at the rate of 

 two bushels, at a cost of $\ per acre, — to the sec- 

 ond strip, ground salt, at the rate of two bushels, 

 or $"2.30 per acre; to the third strip, a mixture of 

 salt and plaster, one bushel each, costing $1.75 per 

 acre ; and so on throughout the field. The growth 

 on each third strip wiih salt and plasture mixture 

 was decidedly the best throughout the season; 

 the second, with salt alone, was next^ and the 

 first, with plaster alone, was the poorest. These 

 strips were sown at different times, extending over 

 two and a half weeks, to ascertain the best season 

 for application. Plaster did best when sown when 

 the clover was two or three inches high, and when 

 the leaves were wet with dew; the salt did best 

 when sown just before a warm rain. The benefi- 

 cial effects of the salt and lime mixture, he ac- 

 counts for by assuming that it contains sulphuric 

 acid, lime, chloride, and soda, — four ingredients 

 most needed by clover. 



But our correspondent's inquiry relates to the 

 effect of salt on a wheat crop. In his American 

 Wheat Cnlturist, Mr. Tood says, his own experi- 

 ence is not in favor of the application of salt to 

 growing wheat, or to the soil where wheat is to be 

 sown. Still he has reason to believe that on some 

 soils a dressing of salt has been and may be again 



of great value to the growing crop. He advises 

 each farmer to make experiments on his own 

 fields, and if the straw or grain is better on the 

 salted strips than elsewhere, then he may conclude 

 that salt is beneficial to his land. Mr. Mechi men- 

 tions a field in England on which the wheat would 

 lodge unless salt was applied. One farmer there 

 salted his manure. 



Mr. John Johnston, the model New York far- 

 mer, has received great benefit from the salt on 

 his wheat fields. His land is a rich heavy soil, on 

 the borders of one of the inland lakes of that 

 State, and may have been once covered V)y water. 

 Some years ago he made the following character- 

 istic statement in the Genesee Farmer : — 



"I did last year what I never did before; that 

 was pluughing up wheat stubble and sowing again 

 with wheat. It is a respectable looking crop now, 

 but if you saw the half of tne field that I sowed 

 salt on, say a full barrel to the acre, I am almost 

 sure you would order forty or fifty barrels of sec- 

 ond quality salt to sow in September or October. 

 The salted wheat stands much thicker on the 

 ground, is considerably taller, came in ear fully 

 four days before the other, and altogether looks 

 richer in every way ; and as I had not salt enough 

 to sow the whole field, I sowed the half that has 

 hitherto brought the worst crop and latest in ripen- 

 ing. Now it is much the best. I can stand in the 

 middle of the field and look forty-five rods each 

 way and see distinctly how far the salt came, or I 

 can walk or ride dovirn the side of the field where 

 not saltLd, and see the line as plainly as if the one 

 side was corn and the other wheat. If this won't 

 make men experiment with salt, I don't know 

 what will." 



Farmers in the neighborhood of the salt works 

 in New York, where refuse salt can be had very 

 cheap, have tried it pretty extensively, and their 

 conclusions as to its value, though not uniform, 

 has not been such as to encourage its general use. 

 But Mr. Geddes says in a late article on the sub- 

 ject in the Tribune, that certain things have been 

 learned, one of which is that a new beginner is 

 very apt to put on so much as to destroy or greatlj 

 injure his crops. Indeed, it is well understood, 

 that salt in large quantities entirely destroys the 

 fertility of a soil. It is also known that in small 

 quantities on some soils an application of salt is 

 beneficial. In the present state of our knowledge 

 we know no better way of deciding its effects on a 

 given field or crop, than by an experiment on a' 

 small scale. 



The other questions of our correspondent must 

 be handed over to "the many readers of the Far- 

 mer" whose pens are lying idle for want of a 

 Subject to write upon. 



LYNDON, Vi. 



Lyndon, as a township, is six miles square, and 

 is nearly equally divided east and west l)y the 

 Passumpsic river. Along the valley of this river, 

 as well as on the hills to the right and Ictt of it, 

 are some of the best faiming lands and farms in 

 this section of the State; and the thrilt and pros- 

 perity of her farmers speak well for their intelli- 

 gence and enterprise. Lyndon has produced somo 

 fine horses for tiic city markets, and her cattle and 

 Sheep have won a name not only in the ca.unt;y 



