No. 6. 



Utility of Salt in ^Agriculture. 



83 



the point at issue; for it does not follow as 

 a consequence, that soils partake of the na- 

 ture of their subjacent rocks. Geology 

 teaches that our planet is composed of nu- 

 merous strata of rocks, which, by some dis- 

 turbing force, have been broken up and dis- 

 placed, while some of these strata were ele- 

 vated into hills and mountains, others were 

 depressed into valleys. The chemical agen- 

 cies of heat and water have gradually decom- 

 posed, and disintegrated the surface of these 

 rocky strata, producing the soil which covers 

 them. But the water necessarily carried 

 vast quantities of this earthly material from 

 the hills, and deposited it in the valleys. 

 The soil in our valleys, is therefore more 

 commonly composed of the debris of the 

 neighborrng hills, than of the rock which 

 it covers. This important circumstance has 

 been left out of the account. 



Acrain, we are told of the "beneficial ef- 

 fects" of irrigaUon on the hills bordering the 

 valley between Bristol and Worcester, in 

 England; which is attributed to the lime- 

 stone, held in solution by the water. But 

 it is well known that the purest water even 

 the chrystal drops as they distil from the 

 clouds of Heaven, produce the most bene- 

 ficial effects ^nA especially so when applied 

 to the '■ higher land." A comparative trial 

 with pure and with calcareous water, on the 

 same soil and under similar circumstances, 

 might not justify the inference which he has 

 drawn. 



A due admixture of calcareous earth, is 

 probably advantageous to every soil, and ne- 

 cessary to healthful and vigorous vegetation, 

 but I do not yet perceive the " error of far- 

 mers, in applying burned lime, instead of 

 ground limestone on their land." 



Too little attention has doubtless been 

 paid to the nature and constitution of dif- 

 ferent soils — to the kinds of manure best 

 adapted to their improvement, and to the 

 crops which they will produce to the greatest 

 advantage. It would be an important acqui- 

 sition to agricultural knowledge, if some per- 

 son qualified for the task, would furnish a 

 series of essays, or a more elaborcde -work, 

 which might be called agricultural geology. 

 Such a work might embrace something like 

 the following subjects: 



1. A description of the rocky strata com- 

 posing the surface of the globe. 



2. The composition and qualities of the 

 soils produced by the decomposition of those 

 strata. 



3. Alluvial soils, or those deposited from 

 water, their composition and qualities. 



4. Of the ditferent kinds of manures and 

 their adaptation to the several descriptions 

 of soil. And, 



5. The proper adaptation of crops, whether 



of grain or grass, to the several kinds of 

 soils. 



It is hoped that some of the readers of the 

 Cabinet will follow up the suggestion here 

 offered, at least by the communication of 

 such facts in relation thereto as they may be 

 in possession of. 

 NewlGarden, 9 mo. 28tli, 1837. 



Utility of Salt in Agi-ictiltiii'e. 



The following note on this subject is ap- 

 pended to " A letter to the Farmers and Gra- 

 ziers of Great Britain, on the advantage of 

 using salt in the various branches of agri- 

 culture," published in England by a late 

 eminent Chemist, Samuel Parker, and re- 

 published in Philadelphia, in 1819, byMessrs. 

 Carey & Son, on the suggestion of the late 

 Judge Peters. As a new generation of farm- 

 ers have appeared since that day, the edi- 

 tor thinks he will render the cause in which 

 he is engaged a service, by its insertion in 

 the Cabinet. 



The utility of Salt for various agricultural 

 purposes has long been known, and attended 

 to in the United States. 



1. As a manure it was early used for flax, 

 as appears from some of Elliott's essays on 

 husbandry, printed in Boston between 1745 

 and 1754: and Mr. Cadwalader Ford, in a' 

 paper on this subject addressed to the Mas- 

 sachusetts Agricultural Society, and pub- 

 lished by that body,* bears testimony of its 

 highly fertilizing effects on flax. The pro- 

 portion which he advises to be used, is 

 double the quantity of Salt to that of seed. 

 He strewed the Salt at the time of sowing 

 the seed. From three acres of flax salted 

 he had 50 bushels of seed and also an excel- 

 lent crop of flax. 



The publication of Mr. Ford's paper by 

 Mr. Carey, caused the experiment to be re- 

 peated by Mr. Henry Hendrickson, of Cecil 

 county, Maryland. He stalesf that on a 

 poor piece of land he sowed one peck of flax 

 seed and one peck of Salt together, and that 

 when the flax was about three inches high, 

 he sowed another peck of Salt on it. He 

 also sowed a piece of excellent land with 

 flax, and although he had a good crop, yet 

 the flax on the poor land " was a great deal 

 better, and produced more seed than the flax 

 on the rich land." A farmer in Delaware 

 county, to whom I mentioned the fact of the 

 utility of Salt as a manure to flax, told me 



* Carey's American Museum, vol. I. p. 49. 

 f Do. Do. vol. 2, p. 176. 



