28 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



to investigate the subject. He reports, "1st, 

 that plants, without a due proportion of salt, can- 

 not attain their proper degree of perfection — and 

 this applies especially to colza, turnips, sweedes, 

 beet, spinach, wheat, oats, maize and other grasses. 

 2d. That salt is an essential constituent of plants 

 as well as animals. 3d, That the soil is constant- 

 ly losing by cultivation a great amount of salt, 

 taken away by the crops. 4th, That none of the 

 manures, at present used, contain any salt ; even 

 guano contains only four-tenths of one per cent, 

 oth, That it is necessary to add salt at regular in- 

 tervals to the soil in some shape or other, if we 

 wish to derive the greatest possible benefit by our 

 crops." 



The Doctor's report, covering as it does nearly 

 the whole field of plant growth, looks a little ex- 

 travagant. Like most men employed to investi- 

 gate specifically in one direction, he has become 

 surrounded with the halo of one idea, and everything 

 that grows upon the earth has a saline look to his 

 eye. Still, there is undoubtedly much importance 

 to be attached to the views presented, and farmers 

 will do well to experiment intelligently with salt 

 as a fertilizer. Kuhlman very nearly doubled his 

 crop of hay upon a natural meadow by the use of 

 salt. The Bavarian Agricultural Society increas- 

 ed the crops of wheat and straw in a very re- 

 markable degree by its use. It should, however, 

 be stated that in both of the experiments the salt 

 was combined with the salts of ammonia, the 

 muriate and sulphate. 



We are not to suppose that salt in all cases is 

 required to furnish the plant with the saline prin- 

 ciple, or even its separate substances, for in the 

 cereals they form by no means the most important 

 constituent. There is a mystery as regards the 

 action of certain agents upon plant growth. Their 

 influence results from their presence in the soil, 

 or they effect certain chemical decompositions 

 which produce the food requisite without being 

 themselves assimilated. This opens a broad field 

 for chemical research, and the future is to shed 

 much light upon the subject. 



If salt increases the growth of wheat upon a 

 field, it is certain that there was present in the 

 soil the requisite quantity of phosphoric acid, 

 silicic acid, potash, &c, to supply all the wants 

 of the grain, but yet it was not in a condition to 

 be assimilated. The salt, like a prompt and effi- 

 cient nurse, properly prepares the food ; the plants 

 eat and thrive. Salt in such a case is not a ma- 

 nure, but a chemical agent capable of fitting cer- 

 tain substances to act as manure or fertilizers. 

 Soda, the ba^e which unites with hydrochloric 

 acid to form' salt, has been found to exert a spe- 

 cific influence in the production of barley ; potash 

 has the same effect upon wheat ; and yet under 

 certain conditions, reversing the application of 

 the salts, has produced results, as regards magni- 

 tude of crops, far more striking than when applied 

 in their natural order. 



As regards the application of salt to our fields, 

 the question arrises, how and where shall we use 

 it, and in what quantity ? It should be tried upon 

 weak meadow lands which have not been under 

 tillage for a considerable time. Use it in the veg- 

 etable garden ; use it whenever, in accordance 

 with an intelligent judgment, you think there is 

 slumbering in the earth the essentials of plant 

 nutriment, which may be aroused by the action of 



the alkaline agent, or the acid with waich it is 

 combined. Use it upon plants which assimilete 

 it as food. Dissolve it in water and apply the so- 

 lution, or sow it broadcast by the hand. Three 

 bustnls to the acre for meadow land may be 

 enough, although more can do no harm. If you 

 get no good results the loss will be of little ac- 

 count. If possible, combine it with the cheap 

 nitrate of 6oda, or sulphate of ammonia, in equal 

 proportions, and you will obtain more prompt and 

 satisfactory results. James R. Nichols. 



Haverhill, Nov. 30, 1863. 



For the Netc England Farmer. 



"WHAT MAY BOYS AT SCHOOL BEST 

 . BEAD ? 



While I was at work on the farm or in the gar- 

 den, I did not every day feel any inclination to 

 read. Still, at intervals, when work was not 

 pressing, and on rainy days, when there was noth- 

 ing for boys to do, I read such things as fell into 

 my hands. But in the long winter evenings, when 

 there were no school lessons to learn, which was 

 usually the case, I had a great deal of time at my 

 own disposal, and commonly spent it in reading. 



One of the most delightful books I ever read 

 was "Conversations on Chemistry," which came 

 out in those years, and which my father bought, 

 and read, and talked about, and which thus nat- 

 urally attracted the attention of us boys. I found 

 it particularly interesting. I remember the de- 

 light with which I found that the air was made 

 of oxygen and nitrogen, or azote, and read the 

 experiments which showed that one of these, ox- 

 ygen, is essential to life, and at the same time, 

 makes a part of everything sour, as was at that 

 time thought ; of the experiments which proved 

 that water is composed of two airs, or gases, one 

 this same wonderful oxygen, the other the not 

 less wonderful hydrogen, which, while with oxy- 

 gen it forms the comparatively heavy fluid, wa- 

 ter, is the lightest substance known — sixteen 

 time lighter than oxygen, which is itself but little 

 heavier than common air. 



I began immediately to think of the air, and 

 what was floating in it. The clouds, as we boys 

 found, from our "Conversations," were water 

 raised into the air by the power of the heat of the 

 sun. How much we talked, as we were working 

 together, of these wonderful facts, and of the 

 beautiful colors which the light of the sun, falling 

 upon the clouds at all parts of the day, and es- 

 pecially towards evening, formed there. Then 

 with what delight we read of the experiments 

 upon heat, of its being condensed by a lens and 

 reflected by a mirror, of its being absorbed by 

 dark surfaces and reflected by all, particularly by 

 bright, polished surfaces, and of its being radiat- 

 ed continually, in straight lines, from every point, 

 however minute, on all surfaces. How wonderful 

 seemed to us the changes made by heat, first of 

 snow and ice into water, next of water, gradually 

 raised to the point of boiling, and then, by that 

 process, turned into visible vapor, and by still 

 more heat, into invisible gas. With what interest 

 we watched the tea-kettle when it was boiling, 

 and observed that the vapor, rushing hot and in- 

 visible from the nose, became visible at the dis- 

 tance of a few inches, by being cooled by the sur- 

 rounding air. And -how curious and wonderful 

 it seemed to us that all plants and the greater 



