152 Agronome on Salt and other Matters. 



in my old days, is perhaps a constitutional complaint which I 

 may never get rid of. It is very strange if I " never tried an 

 experiment with salt." I had only related two anecdotes re- 

 specting it, and the distance in time was above thirty years ; 

 and that I could give one for every intermediate year, would 

 surely be no very difficult task. I have lived very much near 

 the sea beach as well as near salt-works ; I have watched the 

 effects of the sea breeze and salt spray, and always found it 

 rather prejudicial to vegetation than otherwise ! The pam- 

 phleteers will perhaps say that this was owing " to the saline 

 particles not being distributed scientifically ; they were either 

 sown too thick or too thin, or not at the right season ; the salt 

 should be measured by the imperial bushel, and weighed by 

 the patent beam and scales, by men of rank and science." I 

 acknowledge that I possess neither rank nor science, but I 

 hope I possess a common share of common sense, and, as 

 Providence has ordered it, I possess rather more than a com- 

 mon share of experience ; and I refer to the most sensible 

 part of your readers, if a given distance from the sea would 

 not determine the case with as great precision as weights and 

 measures ; but such point I could never find. We have all 

 seen a heap of rank manure lying in a field ; we have seen it 

 destroy vegetation for several inches all round ; then all at 

 once vegetation sprung up most luxuriantly, then gradually 

 diminished, till the effects were lost in the natural verdure of 

 the field. But, when a heap of salt lies in a field, it, like the 

 dung, destroys all vegetation round it; but where is the point 

 of luxuriousness ? where is so much as a fairy ring? no where 

 to be seen : the pestilential effects of it diminish as gradually 

 as those of the poison tree which we read of in the Island 

 of Java ; or, if certain vegetables seem to thrive, they are 

 of a particular kind, more resembling marine than terrestrial 

 natives, and are actually feeding on the murdered carcasses of 

 their more delicate neighbours ! Facts like these, Sir, might 

 teach a child that salt was not a manure, although extremely 

 good and useful for many things. It destroy s weeds and worms ; 

 dead weeds and dead worms are an excellent manure. But, if 

 destroying a perverse and rebellious generation of vegetables, 

 to make room for a better, be manuring, then a naked sum- 

 mer fallow is manuring : or, if cutting off nine plants to make 

 room for a tenth be a manure, then a turnip hoe is a manure ; 

 for, though only a piece of steel on the end of a stick, it has 

 often procured me forty or fifty tons of turnips per acre in- 

 stead of four or five ! By way of explanation, I sow nearly 

 four pounds of turnip seed per acre in drills thirty inches 



