]^EW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Pl-HI.lSHr.l) BY WII.I.IAM MCHOLS. I!()(;|:RS' lilMLDINCS, CONGIU^S S rUKKT, |,(KOUIlTU DOOIl KirOM STATE STIIEICT.) 



Vol. II. 



BOSTON, SATURDAY. MAHCFI 6. 1824. 



No. 32. 



cts i.i7ul Obsti~,u>ons relulitig to .■Igricullurc lunl 

 Doineslic Ecoiumiy. 

 [by the editor.] 

 ON THE USE OF SALT A3 A MA.NUftf. 

 [Concluded froni page 210.] 

 Manures may be divided inio two classes. — 

 16 one is called animal and vcsfetable or pn- 

 scent manures. They consist of decayed aiul 

 caving animal and vearelable substances. Tlie 

 er class is deoominaled fossil manures. The 

 t mentioned do not properly constitute the 

 d of plants, allhoutrh llioy enter into (he 

 miiosition oi veg^eiables in minute quantities. 

 ssil manures stimulate plants, and cause them 

 take their food faster than they otherwise 

 uld do. Tliey are like what medical men 

 I condiments, and answer the same purpose as 

 pects the economy of vegetables, which 

 , pepper, spices, &.c. effect as regards the an- 

 il economy. Under the class of fossil ma- 

 es are also placed not only lime, marl, and 

 isum, but sand, gravel and clay. All of these, 

 their elements are found in plants by chemi- 

 analysis. Sir Humphrey Davy says "the 

 lbs found in plants are four ; silica or earth 

 flints, alumina or pure clay, lime and magne- 

 These constitute all the principal kinds 

 ;arth, are procured by burning, and detected 

 he ashes of vegetables. As they form apart 

 he Substance of plants, they would seem to 

 pari of the food of the plants. But ai> tliev 

 fiur.d in very minute quantities only, they 

 , strictly speaking, no more be considered ,is 

 food ol plants than salt, pepper, and spices 

 be said to be the fond of animais. The i-x- 

 i ofiron and manganese are sometimes found 

 dants: yet nobody woiild class those suh- 

 ices with manures, or what is the same thing, 

 1 for vegetables. 



lanuring land is nothing more than provid- 

 food for the crop which you intend to raise 

 such land. You can no better feed your 

 its with salt alone than you could your shee|) 

 horses. Salt rather qualities and prepares 

 .1 for animals and vegetables than constitutes 

 h food. Manure properly so called must 

 iply the nutriment of plants in oxygene [vital 

 carbon, [iixed air] or azote, [one ingredient 

 he atmosphere.] " Plants are found by analy- 

 o consist piincipally ofcharcoal and aeriform 

 ter. They give out by distillation volatile 

 ipounds, the elements of which are pure air, 

 imable air, coaly matter and azote, or (hat 

 itic substance which forms a great part of the 

 lOspliere, and which is incapable ol support- 

 combustion."* Plants when burnt leave in 

 if ashes pot ash or soda (which last is one 

 the ingredients of common suit) together 

 li some or all the above mentioned kinds ol 

 th. Now as p!;ints consist '■ principally of 

 rcoap' it would seem that charcoal should 

 the principal ingredient in manure. And 

 . theory comports with »vliat is found to be 

 . by experience. Stable manures, which 

 erally speaking are among (he best manures, 

 sist chiefly of carbon, and during their de- 



Agi icultural Chemistrv. 



composition or while they are rotting give out 

 principally carbonic acid gas. That is (hey 

 supply plants which consist " principally of 

 charcoal" with the charco;il they need. But 

 common salt is a comjiound of murcatic acid 

 and soda, or according to Sir Humphrey Davy, 

 of his newly discovercil metal called sodium, i 

 and chlorine. Now as neither of these subsiau- i 

 ces, either in their simple or compound state, 

 contain carbon, which is the article most in de- 

 mand by growing vegetables, it is plain that salt 

 can furnish but little nutriment to plants. We 

 therefore think that the author of " Letters of 

 Agricola" is perfectly correct, when he says 

 " We must not imagine that the farmer, in his 

 application of fossil matter is as much provid- 

 ing a store of aliment for his crops, as when 

 carrying to his fields the contents of his dung- 

 hill. In this latter case he is literally prepar- 

 ing the banquet for the leeding fibres ; in the 

 other, his practice is guided by totally opposite 

 views. The putrescent manures, are strictly 

 and properly the food of vegetation as supply- 

 ing either the ternary or quaternary products 

 which are the previous results of a vital princi- 

 ple, or their component elements of carbon, hy- 

 drogene, oxygene and azote : the fossils on the 

 other hand, enter in a very partial manner into 

 the system ; and though no chemical substances 

 have been lifted to the rank of manures, which 

 have not been found in the organization, yet 

 their agency must be referred more to other 

 causes, such as being offensive to grubs and in- 

 sects, altering the mechanical texture of the 

 soil and its relation to atmospheric absorption, 

 or rendering it more or less retentive of wa- 

 ter." 



A certain proportion of common salt is nor 

 doubt a useful ingredient in every soil. But it 

 is often supplied by the hand of nature. Sir 

 Humphrey Davy says, " 1 have found salt in all 

 the sand stone rocks that I have examined, and 

 it must exist in the soil derived from these 

 rocks. It is a constituent likewise of almost ev- 

 ery kind of vegetable and animal manure." If 

 it already exist in the soil in sufficient quantity, 

 any addition must be injurious. To ascertain 

 whether there is a sufiicient quantity of salt in 

 a soil to answer the calls ol vegetation the cul- 

 tivator must either have recourse to experi- 

 ments as directed pages 209, 210, or chemical 

 analysis, as described page 08. Some attention 

 must be paid to the nature of the crop to be 

 cultivated. Flax requires more salt than com- 

 mon crops, and we believe all plants of an oily 

 or mucilaginous nature require salt, in larger 

 proportions than others, which contain little or 

 no oil or mucilage. 



With respect to the different results of exper- 

 iments with salt as a manure, such as that ol 

 Dr. Deane, who " could not perceive that the 

 salt was at all beneficial to onions,"* — and Mr. 

 Beck, who " found salt to exceed every other 

 kind of manure" for the same plant, wa can in 

 no other way account for them but by suppos- 

 ing the soils in which these experiments wore 

 made to have been different. The one proba- 



* See page 169. t See p^gs 201. 



bly contained salt sufiicient to suppjj the on- 

 ions with as much as was necessary for their 

 : flourishing, and the other being naturally desii- 

 tute of salt, it wai found u^el'ul to (urnish it by 

 art. The same reasoning will apply to gypsum 

 and indeed to all other applications to soil with 

 a view to innease its products. If your land 

 has already a suilicient quantity of animal or 

 vegetable matter, even stable manure would be 



vvorse than useless if applied to such soil; it 



would prove positively injurioiis. 



If salt alone was in all cases a useful manure 

 we could have no barren sea coast. All lands 

 subject to the saline influences of the .seo must 

 become as fruitful as if they had been for a long 

 time watered with the dralnings from a duijo- 

 heap. Cape Cod would be as fertile as the 

 Garden of Eden, and the most arid sands on 

 the sea coast would, many ages since, have been 

 converted into rich mould, as fertile at least as 

 the sediment deposited by the overflowing of 

 the Nile. We do not make these remarks with 

 a view to discourage cultivators from the ap- 

 plication of salt to their soil, but to render them 

 cautious in such application. We believe salt 

 may be an auxiliary, but not a substitute for the 

 recrements of animals and vegetables, common- 

 ly used as manures. 



Sea water is doubtless as an application to 

 soil much preferable to salt. It contains, be-, 

 side* salt, dirt or mud suspended in the fluid, 

 carbonate of lime, muriate of lime, sulphate of 

 lime or gypsum, magnesia, muriate of magne- 

 sia, or Epsom salt, calx of iron, muriate ofiron, 

 &.C. But none of these except the mud, are 

 capable of supplying the want of the carbona- 

 ceous and other matters which give their prin- 

 oipal value to animal and vegetable manures, 

 and the mud is not always obtained from the' 

 ',-ash of the sea u. .....ntity sufiicient to produce 



much eflect. 



STEEPING WHEAT IN SALT WATER, &C. n. ■> 



respondent of the Farmer's Journal, an English 

 Newspaper, inquires whether '' steeping wheat 

 in salt water for many hours will destroy the 

 germinating powers of the grain ?" To this 

 query the Editor of that publication replies, 

 '• we have known that when wheat has lain in 

 the edge of the tub during the whole time of 

 brining, a fortnight or more, and has been pur- 

 posely tried, and have grown as well as any 

 other." 



Probably the strength of the brine, and the 

 temperature of the weather would make a dif- 

 ference in this respect. We have knovvn gar- 

 den peas steeped in a strong solution of saltpe- 

 tre till they would not vegetate, when planted, 

 l)ut cannot tell either the strength of the solu- 

 tion, the length of time the peas were immers- 

 ed in it, nor the temperature of the weather, 

 during the time the peas were steeping. Al- 

 though we do not believe in the fertilizing 

 power of steeps, yet we think they may some- 

 times be of service. But lime water, solutions 

 ol blue vitriol, copperas, common salt, and salt 

 petre, have all a tendency te preserve seeds trnm 

 l-eing destroyed by insects, while in the gr-nrd, 

 or pulled up and devoured by crows, or otner 

 birds. It is then desirable to know how stimg 



