NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



ri'BLlSlll-.D HY WILMAM NICHOLS, noGKRS' BUII.DINOS, CONGRESS BTlTEETr( FOURTH DOOR ^IU)^^!?^ATE"ljTREiTo" 



If. 



BOSTON. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1B23. 



No. 22. 



and Obscriatioiis relating to Agriculture and 



Domestic Economy. 



[by the editor.] 



THF. iSE OF Salt a? a mamrk. There ex- 



greal ditlerence of opinion with regaiil to 



ise of common salt as a fertilizer of soil. 



ivriters on the subject contend that it is 



y beneiicial, but others assert that its use 



ended with little, if any advantage. Some 



re it to be usetul if spread on land in small 



jns, but aflirm that its application in consi. 



lie quantities results in barrenness. A small 



ity. it is said, acceleratCo putrefaction, and 



:nown that a large quantity prevents the 



lactive process. We shall oiler to our rea- 



iome of the apparently contradictory facts 



pinions of eminent philosophers and agri- 



•ists on this topic, and conclude with some 



pts to reconcile them, together with con 



tions which appear to us to be of impor- 



in the use of this article as a manure. 



the early ages of the world, salt was re- 



as the emblem of utter barrenness and 

 tion. And we read in Sacred Writ of 

 !S, who to satiate their vengeance against 

 enemies, sowed grounds with salt to ren- 

 em unfit for cultivation. (See Deut. xxix. 

 'udges ix. 45. Zeph. ii. 9.) Virgil in his 

 ics, lib. ii. condemns a salt soil, as occa- 

 X the degeneracy of fruit trees, and nd- 



of no amelioration from ploughing, 

 t earth and bitter are not fit to sow 

 (vill be tam'rf and mended by the idoii»h, 

 t grapes degenerate there, and ii nits' doclin'.. 

 their sweet flavorous taste renonnre their kind." 



Diijden's Translation, 

 y", speaking of fossil-salt, afBrms that eve- 

 :e in which it is found is barren, and un- 

 ^etation. And Plutarch observes that 

 yplians believed salt to be the spittle or 

 f the god Typhon, the great enemy of 

 ods ; and hence he ndds, they held it in 

 ibhorrence.* 



only the ancients but many of our mo- 

 ■actical agriculturists have given opinions 

 ch in favor of salt as a manure. In a 

 )pended to a paper, published in " Me- 

 )/ the Philadelphia Agricultural .Society," 



page 177, by Hon. Richard Peters, that 

 nan observes " I have, in the early part 



season, [1810] spread salt in the way, 



the quantities recommended by Jlr. 

 on every species of crop, both of grass 

 »in. We have had an unfavorable spring, 

 to the long drought. 1 have perceived 

 ct good or bad, from all or any of the ap- 

 )ns of salt. On my wheat I had some ap- 

 ce of benefit, but it was not decidedly 

 In another volume of the same work, 

 ters observes, " It yet remains doubtful 

 ;r common salt is, or is not a manure, in 



Recs' Cyclopedia, Art. Salt. 

 Redd's mode of applying it was to mix one 

 f salt with two bushels of virgin mould where 

 ees had lain and rotted, or from marshy land or 

 ;d ashes. The compound dry and friable. The 

 • three pecks of salt mixed in the compound so 

 ^ilitate the strewing of it evenly. The time of 

 ion before vegetation begins in the spring. 



Us crude state. I have sometimes thought weir in small quanlilies assists the decompositi^i77f 

 of It; and used it every way. When mixed ' animal and vegetable mailer. This circum 

 with putrescent substances judiciously, it is best. ! stance may render it useful in certain soils 

 in large quantities it prevents, though in small [ Common salt likewise is offensive to insects — 

 portions it promotes putrefaction ; being anti-: That in sm:iJI quaiilities it is sometimes a use- 

 manure. I bolieve is fully proved; and 



pli^ in one case, and septic in the other. Lord 

 Dnndofiald decides against the use of salt, espe- 

 cially on poor land : he says if it be at all use- 

 ful it is on rich lands. He highly recommends 

 sea-7i'ater for its great benefits in husbandy. It 

 contains in a ton a bushel, or a bushel and an 

 half of salt. Sea salt is recommended for the 

 destruction and putrefaction of snails, slugs, 

 grubs, worms and insects infesting grounds. 

 They abounrl most in lands to which animal ma- 

 nures have been long applied. The vitriolic 

 acid is equally efficacious; and I hav^ therefore 

 believed they do not much infest plastered 

 fields." 



Dr. Deane oliserved that "salt is of essential 

 importance to the farmer as a manure. It may 

 be applied to the soil, either by itself, or mix- 

 ed and dissolved in compost. In the latte;- me- 

 thod 1 have found it to be a good fertilizer of 

 land 



ful 



" But if salt be applied unmixed and undis- 

 solved, it will endanger the existence offender 

 plants. 



" In .June, 1786, I salted one bed of my on- 

 ions, one bed of my carrots, and one bed of my 

 early turnips; laying the salt under the stirAiop. 

 in the centres of the intervals, between the 

 rows ; at some distance, perhaps six inches from 

 ibc j)Iant«, that the salt might have time to be 

 dissolved and altered, before the fibrous roots 

 should reach it. The carrots of the salted bed, 

 evidently grew much larger and better than 

 the rest of the carrots ; but I could not perceive 

 that the salt was at all beneficial to the onions 

 or to the turnips. 



" According to Mr. Ford's experiment in sail- 

 ing flax-ground, salt seems to be highly benefi- 

 cial to that crop. He spreads the salt "over the 

 ground at the time of sowing the seed ; and 

 thinks that the quantify of salt should be double 

 that of the seed. From three acres in flax salt- 

 ed, he had fifty bushels of seed, and an excellent 

 crop of flax. It was thought that the advantage 

 of salting appeared more in the seed than in the 

 harle. 



" Mr. Elliot speaks of five bushels of salt be- 

 ing applied to one acre of flax, which is a much 

 larger proportion, and that it had an extraordi- 

 nary effect; and also of a great crop of wheat 

 beinar increased by salt." 



The Farmer''s Assistant says, « An intelligent 

 Farmer once observed to us, that during our re- 

 volutionary war, when this article was ?o dear 

 that he could not afford to give it to his cattle, 

 his barn dung seemed to be of little service to 

 his lands ; but that he found the case much al- 

 tered when he could again afford to deal out a 

 sufBciency of it to his stock." 



Sir Humphrey Davy says '' when common 

 salt acts as a manure, it is probably by entering 

 into the composition of the plant in the -same 

 manner as gypsum, phosphate of lime, and the 

 alkalies. Sir Joh^ Pringle has stated, that salt 



its efficacy depends on many combined causes. 



" Some persons have argued against the em- 

 ployment of salt; because when used in laro-e 

 (junnfities, it cither does no good, or renders the 

 ground sterile ; but this is a very unfair mode 

 of reasoning. That salt in large'qunntilies ren- 

 dered land barren was known long before any 

 records of agricidtural science existed. We 

 read in the Scriptures that Abimelech took the 

 city of Shechem, " and beat down the city, and 

 sowed it with salt" that the soil might be for- 

 ever unfruilfid. Virgil reprobates a salt soil ; 

 and Pliny, though he recommends giving salt to 

 cattle, yet affirms, that when strewed over land 

 it renders it barren. But these are not argu- 

 ments against a proper applica'ion of it. Re- 

 fuse salt in Cornwall, which, however, likewise 

 contains some of the oil and esuviaj of the fish, 

 has long been known as an admirable manure. 

 And the Cheshire farmers contend for the benefit 

 of the peculiar produce of their country. 



" It is not unlikijly that the same causes influ- 

 ence the eflecls of salt, as those which act in 

 modifying the operation ofgy(>st:m. Most lands 

 in Ihis Island, parliculariy those near the sea, 

 probably contain h sufficient quanlity of salt for 

 all the purposes of vegetation ; and in such cas- 

 rs fbe supply of it to the soil will not only be 

 useless, but may be injurious, in great sloims 

 the spray of the sea has been carried more than 

 fifty miles from the shore, so that from this 

 source salt is often sujiplied to the soil. 1 have 

 found salt in all the sandstone rocks thai 1 have 

 eiraminod, and it must exist in the soil derived 

 from these rocks. It is a constituent likewise 

 of almost every kind of animal and vegetable 

 manure."* 



Sir John Sinclair observes that " sea-salt pro- 

 perly applied acts ns a manure. It is particu- 

 larly useful when mixed with a dung hill, or 

 sirewed over larm-yard manures, at the time 

 when they are carried info the field. In Che- 

 shire, refuse salt is found to be a most excellent 

 manure for pasture land or fallows. By the 

 application of only eight bushels per acre, in 

 the month of October, on some rushy land, a 

 most flourishing crop of rich grass appeared in 

 the month of May. Mixed with couch-grass and 

 other rubbish, and afterwards with other ma- 

 nure, it produced the most beneficial effecls in 

 a crop of barley,'and on grass lands. 



" In a series of experiments by the Rev. Dr. 

 Cartwright with salt he fouBd a mixture of salt 

 and soot preferable to any other manure : a cir- 

 cumstance which might be attended with con- 

 siderable advantages to farmers in the vicinity 

 of large towns. 



" It has been ascertained in America, and con- 

 firmed by the experiments of Mr. Lee of En- 

 field Wash, near London that salt is an excellent 



* Elements of Agricultural Chemistry. 

 301, 302. 





