380 [AsSEMBLt 



You will find a composition consisting of one part salt, and two 

 lime, for almost every crop, a capital manure. I have used it suc- 

 cessfully upon wheat, rye, oats, potatoes and various other crops. 

 Where salt is used you will find no grubs or other injurious insects: 

 weeds will be killed by it. I have destroyed Canada thistles by cut- 

 ting them down in August, and applying lime and salt to the tops 

 of the principal stems. You may apply to some soils, in inland sit- 

 uations, 20 bushels of salt to the acre with marked success In Eng- 

 land the farmers using lime and salt together, usually after it is mix- 

 ed, let it lay in a heap for two or three months, covered with straw 

 or sods, before they use it; in order that by slow decomposition, mu- 

 riate of lime and soda may be formed together with alkali; the mu- 

 riate of lime is one of the most absorbing substances known; before 

 this decomposition takes place, it would not be well to use the com- 

 bination, as it may be hurtful. I have used salt and soot; salt and 

 Jersey blue sand; salt and muck; and salt with pond mud to great 

 advantage on the cereal grains. And I have injured apricots, apples, 

 cherries, plums and peaches by the use of salt around their roots in 

 too large quantities. Place a bushel of salt around a good sized 

 cherry tree, and the following year the, fruit will all taste salt. 



Shells unburnt I think make an excellent manure, for the reason 

 that they contain carbonate of lime, phosphate of lime and animal 

 matter, together with soluble gelatine and aluminous, membranous or 

 cartilaginous residue, much of which is of course destroyed by burning; 

 they should be placed upon a stone floor and crushed by means of an 

 iron or granite garden roller, and when they become a palpable 

 powder, the dust should be sown in the drills with the seed. I have 

 used it to grer.t advantage in carrot and beet culture, for the reason 

 that it was sown with the seed, consequently all the volatile and va- 

 luable earthy matters were immediately decomposed, and being in close 

 contact with the seeds, were readily absorbed by the plants as they 

 grew. The contiguous rows of carrots, and beets, five in number, 

 were manured with oyster shell lime in a mild form, arid an equal 

 quantity used; those however sown with the pure oyster shells crush- 

 ed, produced much the finest roots ; in an equal number of rows of 

 potatoes, I observed the same difference, in favor of the shells un- 

 burnt. Any quantity of shells might be obtained in the city of New- 

 York, at a cheap rate. If placed whole in your borders for grapes, 

 they will be of great advantage to them, or in your barn yards un- 

 der the manure, they will decompose gradually, and enhance the va- 

 lue of the compost. 



