142 



Salt as a Manure. 



Vol. II. 



" The advantage, of using lime is, you in- 

 sure to yourself a certain crop, unless the 

 season is very unfavourahle. Ground which 

 lias not yielded wheat for many years now 

 produces fine crops. In one instance, forty- 

 five bushels per acre have been produced 

 this season. Your grain of every kind will 

 be at least double, in many instances treble. 

 \'our pastures will be very abundant — you 

 may double and treble your stock of cattle. 

 If you have more pasture than yon want, 

 plough under your clover — it will mellow 

 and very much enrich your ground. The 

 farmer will then reap abundantly and the 

 old cry of poor crops will be silenced." 



With regard to the best mode of applying 

 lime, its quantity, &c., we can give no better 

 directions than are contained in an article, 

 published in the Memoirs of the New York 

 Board of Agriculture, and republished in the 

 Farmers' Cabinet, vol. 1, page 131, communi- 

 cated by Daniel Buckley, Esq. of vSalisbury, 

 Penn. from which the following is extracted. 



" The method of applying lime, which I have 

 adopted in common with, my neighbors, is, ia 

 the first^place, to plough up a sod field with a 

 strong team, in the spring or fall, harrow it the 

 way it is ploughed, and mark the field into as 

 many squares as you intend to put on half bush- 

 els, say 100 to the acre, which will bring the 

 furrows about 20 feet apart each way, and re- 

 quire 50 bushels to the acre. This quantity I 

 have found to be most profitable. >Vhen the 

 lime is burnt, and as soon as it is cool enough 

 to handle, it ought to be hauled on the land 

 already marked, and half a bushel to be deposited 

 in the centre of each square, in as compact a 

 heap as possible. If water is convenient, I pre- 

 fer to slack the lime immediately, rather than to 

 wait for rain, as it becomes finer, and can be 

 more easily spread. As soon as it is slacked, it 

 is immediately spread and well harrowed. This 

 method I prefer for Indian corn, barley, oats, 

 rye and potatoes. On all the above crop?, 1 1 

 have e.\perienced a great benefit from lime, the 

 first year after its application. With potatoes I 

 add about 15 two horse loads of barn yard ma- 

 nure to the acre before planting. A second lim- 

 ing is often given and much approved of, after 

 an interval of three or more years. This amal- 

 gamates better, and can be more intimately 

 mixed with the soil. There are good farmers 

 who differ as to the quantity of lime, that is 

 most profitably applied. Some say CO bushels 

 on an acre, some 70, and some more. I have 

 applied 100 bushels on an acre of lime stone 

 land, at a dressing; but have not been able to 

 discover any benefit in using it thus freely, nor 

 any injury, except in the loss of the lime." 



It is observed in " Letters of Agricola," 

 that the application of lime is matter neither 

 of mystery or of deep philosophical research. 

 If the necessary quantity be given to land, 

 and properly mixed with the soil, it is a 



thing of much less moment than we are apt 

 to imagine whether it be applied in its 

 caustic or mild state, and for this reason, 

 that there ia a natural progression from the 

 one to the other. 



Dr. Cooper, in the last edition of Willich's 

 Domestic Encyclopedia, observes that 

 '^ Oyster shells are frequently burnt into 

 lime to lay upon land. They are a better 

 manure when ground without burning, owing 

 to the remains of animal matter in them. A 

 good lime compost is the following : spread 

 on any platform under cover 6 inches of 

 mould, then three inches of well burnt lime ; 

 slack it with water in which common salt 

 has been dissolved, at, the rate of 1 1-2 bushels 

 of salt, to each bushel of lime ; cover it with 

 6 inches more of mould. Before lying it on 

 the land, turn and mix this compost heap, 

 and lay 300 bushels of it on each acre-" — 

 N. E. Farmer. 



Salt as a Manure. 



On the subject, 'respecting the best time 

 for applying the salt to the wheat— should 

 It be sown with the seed ? or when the plant 

 13 just up i or in the spring? We should 

 be induced, from every reason on the subject, 

 to prefer applying it immediately after the 

 seed is harrowed in; which agrees with the 

 recommendation of Sir James Hollinshead, 

 and the experiments of Sir John Sinclair, 

 and other writers; or it may be applied when 

 the wheat is well up into the ground, not 

 later than February. It would operate early 

 in the destruction of weeds, by killing them 

 when sprouting, and would not injiu'e the 

 wheat plants. We should prefer its applica- 

 tion thus early, instead of waiting till the 

 spring, because— First, it would operate with 

 greater advantage on young weeds, gruba, 

 cSic. which It would meet with in their most 

 tender state. Secondly, with respect to pre- 

 servation of moisture, wheat does not require 

 that the moisture of the soil should be so 

 carefully preserved, as some other kinds of 

 grain, as it is generally too far advanced in 

 Its growth, before the draughts of summer, 

 to feel any great want of moisture; although 

 if it be admitted in some lands and counties, 

 an increased supply of moisture v^'ould be 

 beneficial; and also, if it was thought that 

 the salt applied early in the vvinterrin any 

 situation, might have lost its full operation, 

 if excessive rains soon followed, and have 

 been too much deprived of its powers of pre- 

 serving moisture, or promoting putrifaction, 

 this might easily be remedied, by slightly re- 

 newing the application in the spring; or may 

 be provided against, by using two thirds of 

 the intended quantity in the winter, and the 

 remaining third in the spring. 



