24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



natural salt resources, the Eastern States seem to be destined to 

 draw their supply of salt from New York, the West Indies and 

 England. What influence the extensive rock-salt deposits of 

 Petite Anse and Neyba, of St. Domingo, and the excellent 

 brines of Goderich, C. W., will have in the future on our daily 

 increasing demand may be well conjectured. Of the thirty- 

 two to thirty-four million bushels of salt which we at present 

 most likely annually consume, only from fifteen to sixteen mil- 

 lions of bushels are of home production. We use the largest 

 amount of salt in our meat-packing and dairy business, — less 

 for the promotion of animal life, and the least amount for the 

 promotion of vegetable growth, — at least as far as in the latter 

 case a direct application is concerned. T}ie highly desirable 

 consumption of salt, on a becoming scale, in the industrial arts, 

 is still depending on a future wise legislation ; the absence of 

 an alkali trade and the varied allied industrial branches are not 

 less to be deplored by the farming community than by others ; 

 for, to say the least, it deprives agriculture of many cheap and 

 valuable sources of by-products and refuse materials of an ex- 

 cellent fertilizing quality. 



II. On the Uses op Salt in Agriculture. 



ON MEAT-PACKING. 



The element chlorine, one of the constituent elements of salt, 

 imparts its preserving quality more or less to most of its com- 

 binations with the metallic elements. Some of these compounds 

 are quite successfully applied for the preservation of anatomical 

 objects, and of objects for collections in natural history in 

 general ; most of them are, of course, from an economical and a 

 sanitary point of view, objectionable for any general application 

 in domestic industry. The meat-packer does not aim at a mere 

 preservation of his beef and pork ; his main object will always 

 be to secure the keeping of his meat in its most palatable con- 

 dition, and as much as possible of its natural color. Chloride 

 of sodium, or what means here about the same, a good com- 

 mercial salt, answers both ends satisfactorily, if properly applied. 

 It does not necessarily change the color of the meat, nor does it 

 affect its tenderness beyond reasonable limits ; it is also a good 

 antiseptic, for it prevents, if present in a sufficient quantity, the 

 development of organism of a lower order, which in their 



