FERTILIZERS. «8 



of science before their eyes, hare pointed to the increased crops, aad asked, 

 " How is that ? " 



There can be no conflict between practice and science, because science is 

 the classified explanation of practice. I have said enough to show that it is 

 not enough to cause the rejection of a substance as manure to say that it is 

 not " essential " to plant growth. 



Let us see what explanation can be made of the use of salt i» agriculture 

 beyond the small amount required for the ash element. 



Professor May showed that solution of salt would render soluble the am- 

 monia which had entered into insoluble condition in the soil. 



Professor AtNvater, in a recent report says: " Something has been said 

 about the use of ordinary salt as a fertilizer. One important oflSce of the salt 

 is to make soluble, and consequently useful in the plant, the materials al- 

 ready locked up, as it were, in the soil. Supposing you have been putting on 

 barnyard manure and other fertilizers. Some of the nutritive materials, as, 

 for instance, potash and phosphoric acid, may perhaps have been taken up 

 by the soU, and remain there in a diflScult soluble condition. Furthermore, 

 there are in the soil some of these ingredients that were in the original rock 

 of which the soil is made up, and are still, so to say, locked up, or, in other 

 words, still remain in an insoluble form therein. One eflfect of salt, as is the 

 case oftentimes with gypsum and lime, is to set loose that potash as phos- 

 phoric acid. You must expect, therefore, in putting on salt, that its chief 

 use will be, not as a direct nutriment to the plant, but rather as a means of 

 setting other materials loose; and salt is very useful on this account, because 

 it is not readily observed in the upper layers of the soil, but often leaches 

 through into the layers; and it will have the effect of setting these materials 

 free all the way down. 



" The German farmers say, however, that yon mtist be careful in the tise 

 of salt. If you put on too much it injures the vegetation. Further, it will 

 not do to put on loose soil. A very loose, sandy soil is not ordinarily bene- 

 fited by the application of salt. Again, it is best applied to soils which con- 

 tain considerable humtis. And, finally, it should be used on soils which are 

 in pretty fair condition as regards the contest of fertilizing elements. On 

 soils which are not too loose, which have a good amount of humus, and 

 which are in pretty fair condition as regards the amount of fertilizing ma- 

 terial, organic and inorganic, contained in them, it is oftentimes a good thing 

 to apply salt." 



RefiLse Salt as a FertUizer. — A Wisconsin farmer writes: I have used 

 salt as a fertilizer for the last three years with good success, and I also find 

 that where I have sown 200 pounds per acre the previous year my crops are 

 much better than where I sowed salt in the spring of the same year. We 

 have better crops in this coimty than in any other county in the State of Wis- 

 consin, and produced by the use of salt. Farmers who at first could not be- 

 lieve that salt is good for anything are the most firm beUevers in it to-day. 

 Those who sowed salt last year will sow double, and those who did not sow 

 are going to sow next spring. 



I sow the refuse salt from the packing houses. I have just finished 

 drawing 22,000 pormds home to sow on my own farm. I shall try it on my 

 winter wheat this week at the rate of 300 pounds to the acre. I have spread 

 2 1-2 tons on an acre, but plowed and worked it up with the soil for a turnip 

 crop or for barley. It cost only 50 cents per ton, which made it a cheap fer- 

 tiliser. It is used very hberaUy in England, where I came from. Sfany 



