36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



potassa. It is rendered thus manifest that soda and potassa, 

 although resembling each other quite closely as far as their 

 general chemical properties are concerned, must exert a quite 

 different influence on the animal system, and cannot substitute 

 each other beyond narrow limits without affecting its normal 

 functions. 



ON SALT AS A PROMOTER OF VEGETABLE GROWTH. 



Mere practical experience, we cannot deny, has rendered 

 quite frequently contradictory and conflicting answers regard- 

 ing the question ; is a direct application of salt for fertilizing 

 purposes really advantageous or not, and if so, under what cir- 

 cumstances have been obtained good and valuable results ? 

 Considering the situation of those at an earlier stage of inquiry, 

 who have endeavored to enlighten us on that question, we find 

 it could not be otherwise ; for it is with salt, as with all other 

 artificial fertilizers : to apply them, and to draw correct conclu- 

 sions from the results obtained, are two quite different and 

 separate operations, and not necessarily connected. As long as 

 the peculiar ivants of tlie soil and its physical conditions, as well 

 as the nature and the composition oii\\Q fertilizers, have not been 

 carefully ascertained, it would have been better to suspend our 

 decision than to proclaim hasty conclusions ; without being able 

 to trace reasonably the connection between cause and effect our 

 decisions cannot claim to be final. To experiment, for instance, 

 loith salt upon a piece of land before convincing ourselves about 

 its deficiency in soda compounds, would be as much out of 

 place as to consider salt and the refuse of salt-works necessarily 

 identical substances. An oversight in both directions has no 

 doubt been productive of many conflicting statements. I pro- 

 pose to enumerate here, first, some of the best supported experi- 

 mental results of practical investigations of an early date, and 

 shall subsequently attempt to reconcile them with conclusions, 

 etc., of a later date. 



The luxuriant grass crops upon marsh meadows along the 

 seashores have been pointed out frequently as a proof of the 

 advantageous influence of saline solutions on the growth of 

 grasses. Agriculturists of note have recommended the direct 

 use of small quantities of salt from time to time upon a warm 

 and dry soil, and asserted, as far as the experiments in England 



