INEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Vol. If. 



PUBMSHKl) BY WILLIAM MCHOKS, UO(;KK^^ ■jUIiThMJ^ CONXyi^B^lWEK'TTci-Ql'llTH DOOR FR(]:iv,-s'fiTF^ 



BOSTON. SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1824. 



KKET.) 



acls aitd Observations relating to .Igriculturc and exceeding the longer grass, wliere less sand is 

 ^ '" used. — Phil. Trati.i. abridged, vol ii. p. 730. 



In (he year 1817, examinations relative to 

 the uses of salt in agriculture were instituted 

 before the Board of Trade, in great Britain. 

 Thev were coinmencod in .\|>ril and continiied. 



Domcstic Econoiiii). 



[by the editor.] 



0.\ THE USE OF S.4LT AS A MANTJRE. 



[Continued from page 202.] 



" Gervase Markham, a learned writer in the ! "' '^''"'"t intervals for many days. The written 

 eign of .Tames the 1st and Charles the Isl. who i '-''''Icnce that was delivered on that occasion 

 as equally noted for his skill in many foreign : ^^'^^ printed by order of the House of Commons, 

 ingnages, and for his knowledge of the various , '^"'' '^^ following extracts compose apart of the 

 -anches of agriculture, published a great varie- ' testimony. 



of treatises on the management of land, and i Evidence of the Right Honorable Lord Ken- 

 osed his agricultural labors by the publication J""- 



"a work entitled " Markham"s Farewell lo | " By the information which I have been able 

 nsbandry," in which the followinff passages '" <^°''^ct, I am induced to consider salt, when 



aiingly applied, as an admirable manure, es 



cur. " If you be neer unto any part of the 

 a-coas(, thence fetch great store of the salt- 

 nd, and with it cover your ground which hath 

 ene formerly ploughed and hackt, allowing 

 to every acre of ground three score or four 

 )re full bushels of sand, which is a very good 

 1 competent proportion; and this sand thus 

 d shall be very well spread and mixed amon 



No. 27. 



^« to the Philadelphia edition of a pamphM 

 entitled, "A Letter to Ihe Farmers and Grazier-4 

 ot Great Britain, to explain the virtue of Sail "' 

 &.C. says, ' 



" The article of salt for various agricultural 

 purposes, has long been known and attended to 

 in Ihe United Stales. 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 the subject, addressed to the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural Society, and published by 

 that body, bears testimony of its highly fertiliz- 

 ing elTects on flax. The proportion which he- 

 advises to be used is double the quantity of salt 

 to that of seed. He strewed the salt at the 

 lime of «o*ing (he seed. From three acres of 



pecially for fallows and arable land ; and when 



mixed up with soil out of the gutters, or refuse flax salted heliad 50 bushels of seed, and also 



tlirt, or ashes, to be very valuable also on grass- an excellent crop of flax. 



uid. My own experience convinces me that 

 it is very powerful in destroying vegetation if 

 laid on too thick, having put a large qaantity of 

 refuse salt on about one-fourth of an acre of land, 

 ! other broken earth. And herein is to be I ^^hich after two years, remains quite bare. A 

 :ed that not any other sand but the salt is '■""' ^urveyer of high character in my neighbor- 

 id or available tor this purpose, because it is ''°0'^ considers that the use of salt would be 



brine and saltnesse of the same which breed- 

 this fertility and fruitfulnesse in the earth 

 aking the growth of all weeds, and giving 

 :ngth, vigor and comfort to all kinds of grain, 

 sulse, or fruit of a better nature. 

 Now methinks 1 hear it objected, what if 

 ground do lye so farre within the land tliat 

 re is no salt sand within many score miles of 

 low then shall I make good my barren earth ? 

 this 1 answer, that albeit this salt sea-sand 

 of infinite good and necessary use, enriching 

 unds wonderfully much ; but if your ground 

 much within land, and farre from Ihe sea, 

 1 to every acre of land you shall take two 

 lels of very dry bay salt, and in such man- 

 as you sow your wheat you shall sow this 

 upon ihe ground; then immediately after 

 ing the salt you shall sow your wheat, which 

 •at should be thus prepared belbre you sow 

 The day betbre you sow your grain, you 

 1 take bay salt and water, and mixing them to- 

 ler, make a brine so strong that it will bear 

 gge ; then put the wheat you are to sow in- 

 lat brine, and let it steep therein till the 

 :_day; then drain it from the brine and so 



it; and no doubt but you shall find a tnar- 

 3us great increase thereby. Neither is the 

 g iiself wi(hou( good and strong probability 

 icrease, and strength (or the bettering of ail 

 ner of arable grounds; for there is nothing 

 killeth weeds, quicks and other oflences of 

 ground, so much as saltnesse." 

 r. Coxe, in his memoir, printed in the Phi- 

 ihical Transactions, on manuring tbj? land 



sea-sand, writes thus— "The eflect it usu- 

 produces, where much of this sand is used. 

 lat the seed is much and the straw little. I 

 i seen good barley, where the ear has been 

 .1 in length with the .straw it grew on. Af- 

 he grain is cut, the grass though it be but 

 t, yet as lo feeding, giving good creams, 

 ty of milk, and all other good purposes, far 



ikely to be very valuable in destroying the 

 slusr, wire-worm, .snail, &c. which often destroy 



Carey, caused the experiment to be repeated 

 by Mr. Henry Hendrichson, of Cecil County, 

 Maryland. He states that on a poor piece of 

 land he sowed one peck of flax-seed, and one 

 peck of salt together, and that when Ihe flax 

 was about three inclies high, he sowed another 

 peck of salt on it: He also sowed a piece of 

 excellent land with flax, and although he had a 



whole crops. He also well remembers that salt j good crop, yet the flax on the poorland " was 

 was used largely in the neighborhood of the a great deal better, and produced more seed than 

 higher and lower Wiches in Cheshire, before " " ' - 



duties were raised lo (heir present height." 



The Evidence ot Mr. Kingston. 



" 'n replj, u> your ijiieiies, as an .igricullural 

 ist, I have no hesitation in saying that salt, if 

 free from duty, would become one of the most 

 useful and general articles of manure that ever 

 was thought of, if properly prepared by mixing 

 it with mud of any kind, the cleaning of ditches 

 and ponds, the surface of coarse grounds, thrown 

 into heaps to rot, blubber, &,c. &c. I am like- 

 wise persuaded that if it could be afi"orded lo 

 he sprinkled on the layers of hay when making 

 into the rick in catching weather, it would pre- 

 vent its heating or getting mouldy. 



" I had some small oxen tied up to fatten, 

 which did not thrive, owing, as the bailiff said, 

 to the badness of the hay, of which they wasted 

 more than they ate, but by sprinkling it with 

 water in which some salt had been dissolved, 

 they leturned to eat it greedily. From this and 

 many circumstances of a similar nature, 1 am 

 free to say that if the (bod of cattle tied up to 

 ('a((en was sprinkled with a proper quantity of 

 salt, they v/ould thrive much faster than by the 

 present mode, and would prevent their being 

 hoven by an excess of food." 



AVe migh( add (o the (bregoing a mass of facts 

 and opinions, given at various times, before 

 Committees of the English House of Commons, 

 all concurring in favour of salt, both as a ma- 

 nure, and a condiment lo season the food of cat- 

 tle. But that part of the testimony which ad- 

 verts to salt as a manure, in general, merely 

 corroborates what we have already stated, and 

 that which relates to utility of salt in feeding 

 cattle, preserving them from disease, &c. may 

 be adverted to hereafter. 



Dr. Mease of Pliiladolphia, in a note append- 



the flax on the rich land." A farmer in Dela- 

 ware County to whom I mentioned the fact of 

 the utility of salt as a manure to flax, told me 

 he Lrt,; fried il, n3<? that it was plainly seen to 

 be of great benefit." 



" The farmers on the brackish rivers on our 

 coast, find that the salt grass growing on the 

 water's edge, when ploughed in, acts as a very 

 excellent manure for Indian corn; and on the 

 Rariton particularly, it is a general practice thus 

 to employ it." 



It would be easy to swell this article by giv- 

 ing the names, and the substance of the testimo- 

 ny of many others, who «re renowned for tbeir 

 science and skill in agriculture. But enough has 

 been exhibited to prove that common salt may 

 be useful, or it may be injurious as a manure. 

 Injudiciously applied, or applied in loo large 

 quantities its immediate effect is to destroy ve- 

 getation, and cause the land for a season to be 

 altogether unproductive. Like quicklime when 

 applied to growing crops, it is often corrosive. 

 Mr. Beck, an English gardener, destroyed his 

 onions by the application of salt to the soil after 

 the young plants have made their appearance. 

 Asparagus, we are informed receives great ad- 

 vantage from sal( as a manure, which might 

 be inferred from i(s growing na(urally on the 

 borders of salt marshes. Probably Sea Kale 

 (CrambeMaratima) a plant, which, in a state of 

 nature, we are told is no where found, except- 

 ing on (be sea coast might receive as much be- 

 nefit from salt as a manure as asparagus. 



If a soil is totally deficient in animal or vege- 

 table matter, and has nothing w liich on burning, 

 or roasting it, after being carefully dried, can be 

 expelled by heat, we believe thai salt would not 

 answer any valuable purpose if applied as a ma- 

 nure. Mr. Samuel Parkes, an English scientific 



jj 



