40 THE CARNATION. 



suasion of its beneficial effects. A Scotch gardener, 

 to whom I related the use of salt as manure, endea- 

 voured to dissuade me from doing it ; his opinion, 

 no doubt, was regulated by the account of the expe- 

 riment of salt-water (sea-water) given by his coun- 

 tryman, Walter Nicol. ' Ah, man,' said he, ' it will 

 destroy all your flowers, root and branch, for nothing 

 will grow where salt is.' I however still persisted to 

 use it. Five or six years previous to this, I had a 

 few favourite Cloves growing in the ground, and was 

 anxious to protect them from the slugs and snails, by 

 which their foliage had been much injured ; I was 

 told that salt was an excellent remedy against them ; 

 accordingly I strewed a handful or two of it close to 

 the roots and over the foliage of the plants, in order, 

 as I thought, to preserve them from being eaten up by 

 them ; but judge of my surprise in a few days after, 

 I observed them to turn yellow and sickly ; in fact, 

 they languished for a while, and died. And such 

 would have been their fate, if I had put fresh soot,, 

 quick-lime, night-soil, sugar-baker's scum, or any 

 other hot manure in a green or rank state ; from 



