58 MANURES. 



"This farm in its improved state exhibited a gratifying sight. 

 The hills, were formerly thorns, thistles and mulleins, disputed 

 the dominion, now supported luxuriant corn. Extensive ver- 

 dant meadows, where numerous stacks of grain and well filled 

 barns evinced the productiveness of these fields, which are now 

 estimated at three times their former value." 



Salt is, probably, as essential to the health of vegetables as 

 of animals, and it is reasonable to believe that a mineral thus 

 widely diffused performs important functions. It exists in all 

 plants, is a constituent part of almost every kind of animal and 

 vegetable manure, and is found in most soils in sufficient quan- 

 tity for the purposes of vegetation. 



Experiments with salt as a manure, have in most cases failed, 

 or been of doubtful success. That in many cases, salt applied 

 in small quantities has been useful, can hardly be questioned. 

 These, we rnay believe, were cases comparatively rare, where 

 there was a deficiency of salt in the soil for the use of the 

 plants, or where it was not supplied in sufficient quantity by 

 the ordinary manures. 



Though salt can rarely be applied with advantage directly to 

 the soil, and ought never to be employed at hazard, without 

 its being known whether the salt of the soil is really deficient, 

 yet there is reason to believe that, in various cases, it may be 

 applied along with other substances with manifest advantage. 



Salt, in small quantities, is said to assist the decomposition 

 of animal and vegetable matter; and a portion of it mixed with 

 ordinary composts of earth and lime, appears to increase their 

 fertilizing properties. "By the information which I have been 

 able to collect, I am induced to consider salt, when sparingly 

 applied, as an admirable manure, especially for fallows and 

 arable land, and when mixed up with soil out of gutters, or 

 refuse dirt and ashes, to be very valuable on grass lands. My 

 own experience convinces me that it is very powerful in de- 

 stroying vegetation, if laid on too thick"* 



The "Complete Grazier," which is considered a standard 

 work by English Farmers, says, that "salt is of singular fer- 

 tility on pasture lands; on whicli, when it is properly scattered, 

 cattle thrive very speedily; besides which, it not only im- 

 proves and increases the herbage, but also sweetens sour pas- 

 tures, while it destroys weeds and noxious vermin." 



That celebrated chemist, SAMUEL PARKS, in his great work 

 on Chemistry, says, "In a conversation with a gentleman who 

 has spent many years of a valuable life in making experiments 

 on the employment of salt in agriculture, I was informed that 



* Lord KENYON'S Reply to the English Board of Trade. 



