322 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



leagues before it becomes completely deposited from the air. It 

 is utterly impossible to calculate how much saline matter is thus 

 spread over the soil of sea-girt land, rendering it capable of pro- 

 ducing, sustaining, and finally yielding a luxuriant vegetation, 

 fully developed in all its parts, and thus admirably prepared to 

 build up the frames of all animals feeding upon it. 



There is one point, however, connected with these saline mat- 

 ters that I cannot understand. It is well known that chlorine 

 and iodine exist in large quantities, not only in the mist before 

 spoken of, but in nearly all marine plants, and that both of them 

 are not only poisonous to plants, but animals likewise. Chlorine 

 possesses a pungent smell, and will burn phosphorus, gold leaf, 

 and many metals. Animals cannot breathe it without suffocation. 

 Every hundred pounds of salt contain sixty-two pounds of this 

 substance. Iodine exists chiefly in combination with sodium, as 

 iodide of sodium in marine plants and sea water. In the isles of 

 Guernsey and Jersey sea weeds are considered of inestimable 

 value, and have been used for manurial purposes from time imme- 

 morial. They are gathered from the rocks at certain times 

 selected by the magistrate, and announced to the people by a 

 public crier on a market day. There are two seasons for cutting 

 it — in the summer and after the vernal equinox. That collected 

 in summer is dried on the shore, and used as fuel, but the ashes 

 is placed on the soil, and adds much to its improvement. The 

 winter collections are spread on the green grass, and plowed 

 under, with incredible advantage. There are many situations 

 on our coast devoid of sea weed, still it may there be cultivated 

 successfully for manure by merely placing stones on the shore for 

 the fuci to attach themselves to, and in two years thereafter 

 there will be a fine crop to cut. 



The soluble saline parts of soils consist of gypsum, common 

 salt, glauber salts, epsom salts, nitrates of lime, soda and potash, 

 with traces of the chlorides of potassium, magnesium and calcium. 



These are not, of course, all found in the same soil ; one may 

 contain lime, and be deficient in soda; another deficient in the 

 phosphates, but well supplied with the magnesia. This accounts 

 for the fact that one species of soil is admirable for the growth 

 of certain plants, and not at all favorable to others ; conse- 

 quently, plants which require common salt, are always found 

 growing near the ocean, or near salt works, hundreds of miles 



