102 On the Uses of Salt in Agriculture. 



The effect of salt, applied in the same way to peat, in alternate 

 strata, is a most important subject of experiment, which, if successful, 

 would greatly promote the improvement of waste lands. It would 

 probably act more rapidly on peat than on heath, and would thence 

 furnish an immediate manure for a crop of turnips, so well calculated 

 for bringing such soils into a state of fertility. 



3. It is an effectual Remedy against Smut It is well known that 

 seed wheat, if immersed in water, so impregnated with ealine parti- 

 cles, that an egg will float in it, and frequently stirred, so that all the 

 unsound grains will rise to the top, which are then skimmed off, will 

 be exempted from smut, provided, after the wheat is separated from 

 the pickle, it is spread upon the floor, and a sufficient quantity of new 

 slaked lime, to dry the whole, is sifted upon it *. 



4. It preserves the Seed "when sown, from Vermin. In some parts 

 of Scotland, where the oat crops were frequently destroyed by grubs, 

 &c. it has long been a practice to mix salt with the seed, in the propor- 

 tion of one to thirty-two, but sometimes one to sixteen. Every means 

 has been taken to ascertain the utility of the practice, which has been 

 found to be attended with uniform success. Salt destroys vermin in 

 the ground, by making them void the contents of their bodies, the 

 stimulus being too powerful for them to withstand. It has this addi- 

 tional advantage, that the vermin thus become food for those very 

 plants, which otherwise they would have destroyed f. 



5. It promotes the Vegetation of Oily Seeds. This was 6rst dis- 

 covered in America, in the culture of flax, and it has since been as- 

 certained in this country, by the experiments of Mr Lee, of Old Ford, 

 near Bow, in Middlesex. The quantity of salt should be the same as 

 that of the seed sown, namely, about three bushels per English acre. 

 It is strewed on the surface after the seed has been sown. It im- 

 proves greatly the quantity and quality of the flax, and in particular 

 the quantity of the seed from the new crop. Though the experiments 

 have hitherto been confined to flax, it would probably answer equally 

 well with other seeds of an oily quality. It is supposed, indeed, that 

 salt is most useful, when it is mixed with substances containing oil, 

 the union of the two, being converted into a species of saponaceous 

 matter, which is favourable to vegetation J. 



6. It increases the Produce of the Pasture Land and Meadows. 

 It has been proved by experiment, in Cheshire, that after draining sour 

 rushy land, if salt be spread upon the surface, in the month of Octo- 

 ber, its effects on the crop of next year, will be in the highest degree 

 satisfactory. In one spot, where eight bushels were spread, a most 

 flourishing crop of rich grass appeared in the month of May, but a 



* East Lothiau Report, p. 111. 



j- Lord Dundonald on the connection of Agriculture with Chemistry, 

 p. 138. 



i Equal quantities of salt, and of turnip seed, were tried on a small plot of a 

 garden, by the author of this paper j and the produce was more abundant, than 

 frpm the same quantity of turnip seed, sown without salt. The efficacy of salt, 

 as a destroyer of the turnip fly, or beetle, ought to be ascertained. 



