174 Oil Salt as a Manure* 



ties the most successful, I had still doubts about its ge- 

 neral utility, as a manure of any certain efficacy. 1 read 

 to him, from page 171 of our memoirs, the opinion I 

 there give in these words. " It is not well ascertained 

 that common salt fmuriat of soda J is a manure. If it is, 

 it acts by its septic quality, when applied in small quan- 

 ties." His exclamation was — " Then it is a manure, 

 and acts as thou hast supposed," 1 know it by nume- 

 rous facts, and profitable experiments." He is not a 

 farmer by profession ; and his pamphlet shews him not 

 to be acquainted with principles of the art. His theories 

 are hetertdox and whimsical. Among other impro- 

 prieties, he proposes the mixture of salt with gypsum; — 

 decidedly ruinous to both. He has a small farm; but is a 

 mechanic; — I think in wire work. His facts are worthy 

 of attention. He ploughs in the fall ; or, if practicable, 

 in the winter, and early in the spring. There he falls in 

 with my experience ; and probably this may be the se- 

 cret^ in a great measure, of part of his success. The 

 strewing the salt must be before vegetation begins in 

 the spring ; and never to exceed one bushel per acre, 

 either in substance or diluted with water, and mixed 

 with two bushels of " virgin mould where fallen trees 

 had lain and rotted, or from marshy land, or slackened 

 ashes." The compound must be dry and friable. His 

 average per acre seems to be three pecks of salt, mixed 

 in the compound, so as to facilitate its being the better 

 and more equally strewed. He applies it to all vegetable 

 products ; whether on the farm, or in the garden. And 

 he gives instances of happy effects in the orchard ; and 

 on all fruit trees. He deepens his spots where Indian 

 corn is planted ; and puts therein a table spoonful of 



