AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 569 



down a considerable distance in the soil, causing it to become 

 very pulverulent. I have spread it upon lands after the crops of 

 potatoes, turnips and grain had grown eight inches high, and 

 have worked it in with cultivators, also upon fallow lands, and 

 have mixed it with vegetable and muck compost heaps very ad- 

 vantageously, but never with animal manures, as it is apt to 

 render several of their component parts insoluble. I have found 

 the lime and salt mixture admirable as a top dressing, mixed in 

 the following proportions : Two loads of lime, say sixty bushels, 

 with thirty bushels of salt in a dry state, placed under cover for 

 ninety days, and use about sixty bushels to the acre; the results 

 were remarkable. But a better composition is to add sixty 

 bushels of muck, during the decay of wliich new combinations are 

 formed, such as nitrate of lime, chloride of calcium, gypsum, &c. 

 Its utility has been known in England for many years. So early 

 as 1688, Christopher Packe used it for enriching poor and barren 

 land, and considered it the cheapest of all mixtures. Mr. 

 Mitchell, of Ayr, used it many years since, and not knowing 

 what Mr. Packe had done, announced himself the discoverer. 

 His mode w^as to boil down 3,000 gallons of sea water to 600 

 gallons, with which he slacked sixty-four bushels of shell lime, 

 and this he considered sufficient for two acres of land. 



I would call your attention to another mixture from which I 

 have reaped great advantage, and that is salt and soot combined 

 in equal proportions; it will double almost any root crop. Twelve 

 bushels is sufficient for one acre of ground. 



Salt without lime is very advantageous to soil; nearly all plants 

 contain it, and furthermore it preserves i)lants from injury by 

 frost, as salted lands are only frozen by excessive cold. Cabbages 

 and other similar plants in salted grounds will appear green and 

 flourishing, when the same plants on contiguous unsalted land 

 will be frozen to a state nearly allied to death. It retains mois- 

 ture in the soil, and likewise absorbs it from the atmosphere. 

 Salt is formed of chlorine and sodium, and is therefore a cliloride 

 of sodium. It is witliout smell or bitterness, melts in a red heat, 

 and is volatilized in a white heat; cold water dissolves only a 

 certain quantity, warm water more, but when it becomes cold, 



