PiwcEEuryGS of the Farmers' Club. G25 



especially beech and oak leaves, ^vliicli have a good deal of lime and 

 potash in them. The l)est reo-nlar dairy farmer in tliat State, S. M. 

 Welles, of Wetherstield, hauls his nnick three miles, and he makes it 

 pay to do so. lie has donlded the intrinsic value of ten or twenty 

 acres about his barn, because by using muck behind all his cows, he 

 hauls out three times as much manure as he did before he took to 

 using muck. lie keeps his muck di-y, and wheels it into ihe stable every 

 da}'. lie carts several hundred loads every fall, and keeps it in a 

 big bin or cellar. His stable tloors are all water-tight. 



Salt as a Manure. 

 Prof. Charles Eggert, Iowa University, Iowa City. — As a partial 

 answer to certain inquiries about the value of salt as a fertilizer, the 

 following facts may prove of interest : 



1. Neither of the two elements of common salt, chlorine and 

 sodium, is found in the majority of plants. Sodium exists only in 

 the sugar beet, and in certain plants growing near the seashore, &c., 

 (salsola, Balicormia, &c). These plants, inclr.ding the sugar beet, 

 belong mostly to one family, the chenopodie. Ever since the French- 

 man Peligot (vide transactions of the Paris Academy, Noveniberj, 

 1867), examined this matter, the fact, as just stated, has not been 

 contradicted. Xeither the grain nor straw of wheat, nor the wood 

 of the oak, the leaves of the tobacco plant, nor the roots of parsnips, 

 nor the tubers of the potato, contain any sodium. Altbougli. all 

 plants contain largely potassium, and this element is so nearly akin to 

 sodium, investigations have satisfactorily proved that in most plants, 

 the latter can never be substituted for the former. Certain sea. plants 

 that contain sodium, can be easily made to substitute potassium for it, 

 but not vice versa. 



2. Experiments W\\\\ pure salt have demonstrated the flAct that the 

 soil is not benefited by it. C.v^es seemingly in contradiction with, 

 this fact are known, but tlicj form no exception, inasmuch as salt 

 is often impure, and its impurities, particularly magnesia, one of the 

 most powerful mineral manures, have been proved to be tlie real 

 cause of the bencticial ctFect. 



?K There is, liowever, one possibility left where salt may directly 

 aid vegetati(.ni, viz: when the soil contains at the s;ime time a great 

 proportion both of lime and of organic nitrogenous substances. In such 

 a case there will be formed, of the carbonate of lime and the chloride? 

 of sodium (salt), chloride of potass and carbonate of soda. The Iattcr.j, 



[Inst.] 40 



