SALT AS A FERTILIZER. 319 



do not know that it would ever do it a2;ain. I never have 

 been able to come up to the hen-manure scratch, by more 

 than half, except that one time. Everything seemed to work 

 in favor of that. The weather was peculiarly favorable ; the 

 condition of the crop was just right to apply it, and I have 

 never had all these favorable influences, with the hen-manure 

 mixed in, since. I may never succeed again with these salt- 

 washings as a special manure for the root-crop as I have this 

 season, yet I tried a little last year, and it worked wonders, 

 certainly, on the root-crop, and I have come to believe that 

 salt is a special fertilizer for the mangold, the cabbage, the 

 whole turnip family, the whole cabbage family, the whole beet 

 family, and I do not think it can be beat by anything, for beets, 

 except hen-manure. These salt-washings are taken out of the 

 factory filled salt that they manufacture there. It is passed in 

 some way through water by something reseml)ling an elevator 

 in a flouring-mill ; I do not understand just how it is done, 

 because I have never seen it. They tried to describe the 

 process to me, but I am so thick-headed that I could not 

 fully comprehend it ; but they run it through water, and it 

 takes out this refuse salt. It is composed of 34.304 per 

 cent, of chloride of sodium (that is, common salt) ; 35.749 

 per cent, sulphate of lime, or plaster of paris ; 9.039 per 

 cent, of carbonate of lime ; 1.605 per cent, carbonate of 

 magnesia. This carbonate of lime they use in the brine to 

 free it from its impurities. It has 0.206 per cent, of insoluble 

 matter, 0.497 per cent, of organic matter, and about eighteen 

 per cent, of water, or loss. I find that I can dry out about 

 eighteen per cent, of it, and that, I conclude, is water. Now, 

 gentlemen, you see that, for any aquatic plant, such as celery, 

 the whole cabbage family, the whole turnip family, this is a 

 grand fertilizer, and I would say to the farmers of Massachu- 

 setts, that I have agreed to take this salt, and use it upon 

 every kind of soil, and I have obtained two or three assistants 

 to try it in difierent localities, and you shall hear the result ; 

 but I believe it will pay the farmers in any section of the 

 country to obtain this salt. It costs, at the works, about 

 three dollars and a half a ton, put up in soda casks, which 

 hold from five to seven hundred pounds each, and it can be 

 cheaply brought to you ; I think so cheaply, that you will 



