On die Uses of Salt in Agriculture. 103 



still stronger crop in the month of July, where sixteen bushels had 

 been applied *. 



It is stated, on most respectable authority, that salt, sown thinly 

 by the hand, will destroy the moss with which meadows, and pasture 

 lands, are so apt to be infested f. 



In the Netherlands, Dutch turf ashes, which are strongly impreg- 

 nated with saline particles, are applied to the second, as well as to the 

 first crop of clover, with great success ; and Mr Hollinshead strongly 

 recommends sowing six bushels per acre, on meadows, after the hay 

 is got in, particularly in dry and hot summers, and upon limestone 

 and sandy soils. The moisture which the salt attracts and retains, 

 powerfully assists vegetation, and produces a crop greatly superior in 

 quality to that obtained by the application of dung j. 



For meadows, it is found to be an advantageous practice, to mix 

 sixteen bushels of salt, with twenty loads of earth, per acre, turning 

 the heap over two or three times, that the substances in it may be 

 thoroughly incorporated, and spreading it on the surface, either in sum- 

 mer or spring . 



7. // improves the Quality of Hay. The practice of salting hay, 

 at the time of stacking it, has been practised in Derbyshire || , and in 

 the North Riding of Yorkshire ^[. The salt, particularly when ap- 

 plied to the second crop of clover, or when the crop has received much 

 rain, checks the fermentation, and prevents moulding. If straw be 

 mixed with hay, the heating of the stack is still further prevented, by 

 the straw imbibing the moisture. Cattle will eat, not only such salt- 

 ed hay, but even the straw mixed with it, more eagerly, than better 

 hay not salted, and will thrive better upon it. 



Lord Somerville was of opinion, that salt could not be conveyed 

 into an animal, in a more effectual manner, than by sprinkling it through 

 a sieve, at the rate of twenty-five pounds weight of salt, to a ton of 

 hay, when in the act of putting it together, for every particle is im- 

 bibed in the fermentation, without a possibility of waste. This salted 

 hay is of great use to sheep,*when put on turnips early in the season ; 

 for the tops being then rank and strong, many of the sheep die sud- 

 denly from pent-up wind, occasioned by excess of fermentation- in the 

 stomach. Salt, or salted hay, is then devoured by them with greedi- 

 ness, which denotes their salutary effect. By the use of salted hay, 

 Lord Somerville did not lose one sheep on turnips in the autumn 1BOJ, 

 though the season was rainy and unfavourable **. 



Dr Paris likewise contends strongly for improving bad hay by salt, 

 applying it in the proportion of about one cwt. of foul fishery salt to 

 three tons of hay. But of pure salt, a third of that quantity may be 

 sufficient. It should be sprinkled between the layers. It prevents 



* Cheshire Report, p. 236. 



f Sir Thomas Bernard's Treatise, p. 103. See Col. Scobell's Evidence, 

 ditto, p. 270, note, as to its efficacy in removing moss on old leys. 

 \ Hollingshead on Salt as a Manure, p. 26. 

 Hollingshead on Salt as a Manure, p. 25. 

 fl Derbyshire Report, vol. ii. p. 1 82. 

 \ North Riding Report, p. 177. 

 Sir Thomas Bernard's Tract on the Salt Duties, p. 262. 



i2 



