THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



Mciftirsf 



• 



365 



bushels, 27 parts of moisture in the same time. Mr. used 



With them only those substance* 



the chair) by Pro 



10TAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 



A Lectcre, on the agricultural employment of com- 

 m \t was delivered before the Members, at a 

 Weekly Council, held at the Society's House, in Hnno- 

 TeMOU*re» on Wednesday, M— 1J " Un u ~- »-— — 

 HrcET Clive, M.P., Trustee, _ , _^ . 



rnsoa Way, the consulting chemist to the Society. 



OH THP U-E OP COMMON SALT IN T AGRICULTURE. 



jj^ Way commenced his lecture by adverting to the 

 circumstances under which it was given. A few weeks 



a meeting of the Society, one of its members, 

 Baron Mertens, expressed the desire of his (the Belgian) 

 Gorernment, to elicit from English agriculturists, their 

 experience with regard to the use of salt ; and at the 

 jMMftion of Mr. Fisher Hobbs and other gentlemen, it 



pttT ttfMftd that it should form the subject of a 



lecture to be delivered by the chemist of the Society. 

 He (Mr. Way) had great pleasure in appearing before 

 the Society, in accordance with their request, but they 

 must not expect him to bring before them anything 

 particularly novel on the subject. The question had 

 been repeatedly discussed by able men in lectures, books, 

 and special essays, particularly at the period when the 

 removal of the duty on salt was contemplated and 

 effected ; and more recently, when a like measure was 

 proposed by the French Government. To reopen the 

 ion in detail would require not one, but several 



„-j -« «~ -™- — -~ f *u F «m oi sait to attract were called «• manures " which were known to operate bv 

 and retain moisture went far to explain its beneficial supplying some of the elements requisite for heSioa 



effects on land, and the same was true in a lesser degree -*-'-—-- • «-^ or tne DutI ™oa 



of muriate of lime or any other deliquescent salt 

 which it might give rise to in the soil. Then 



supposed that common salt is a direct food 

 of plants ; that is to say, that it is necessary to enable 



. : , "to would be manures 



as supplying an element (nitrogen), entering into the 



composition of plants. Those other applications which 

 contribute to improve the texture of the soil and to 

 brini$ into ■—•*-*■ 



„ r~- •j— - — --y » — -• " » "^^»> w enaoie | orm* into play its dormant energies, are 

 them to build up their organs, in the same way that .J « amendments » or « improvers." sid i 



, , % * , t ° 7 , — " . *v KgML auieiiuinenis or "improvers." :>and added to a. 



phosphorus and sulphur are now known to be indis- heavy soil would be of the latter class, as would lime 

 nensable elements of vegetation. Were this artiiallv w*.,» A .uu_- a. :* ;„ *_• , J ., ,, I " rae ! 



pensable elements of vegetation. Were this actually 

 the case, the whole question would be set at rest. Sup- 

 posing that common salt existed in every kind of vege- 

 table in such definite quantity as to lead to the belief 

 that it was a component part of their organised struc- 

 ture, then plainly its existence in the soil in some shape 

 or other would be absolutely necessary for vegetation ; 

 and we could readily understand how its artificial 

 supply would in some instances have the best result ; 

 this point, therefore, demanded attention. 



The analyses of the ashes of plants had shown, that 

 whilst common salt was present in very large proportion 

 in Mangold ^ Wurzel, Carrots, Turnips, and such-like 

 plants, and in lesser, although still considerable quan- 

 tities in the Grasses and the straw of different corn 

 crops, it was almost, and in some cases entirely, wanting 

 in the seeds of plants. Thus by the table to which he 

 directed their attention they would see that, whilst 

 1000 lbs. of Mangold Wurzel contained as much as 37 oz. 





because although it is certainly part of the food of 

 plants, we evidently use it with other views when we 

 apply it in such large doses to our fields. 



Salt, then, having failed to prove its claim to be 

 ranked under the first head in the French agricul- 

 tural vocabulary, it remained to be seen whether it 

 operates as an indirect agent in vegetation. Indeed, 

 granting the efficacy of salt as an application to the soil, 

 this was the only other way of accounting for its effects. 

 It had been said that salt in small doses hastened putre- 

 faction, and that in this manner it v s capable of 

 furnishing the growingf plant with a more abundant 

 supply of vegetable and animal food. Mr. Way had no 



personal knowledge of this property of salt, and the 

 assertion did not appear to him to* be altogether free 

 from doubt. ***-•• 



1 « OT iv» ... — - i ~ , ? «~*~*~. i vw iuo. vi lUMi^um »» ur/A'i coiiiamea as mucn as a/ oz. 



lectures,and he considered that, under the circumstances, of salt, the same quantity of Wheat furnished only 1 oz. ; 



th* u-'mhea of the Society would be host earripri mif if In^^Ulncffim^..,^. :r a. _^- • •*' 



re an 



the wishes of the Society would be best carried out, if 

 he simply recapitulated the various conditions in which 

 salt had or had not been beneficial as a manure, and the 

 no less various opinions which were held as to its mode 

 of action. It was with the last that his business chiefly 

 lay, and in reviewing them, he should pass rapidly over 

 those which were open and palpable, and give his chief 

 attention to those others which, from their obscurity. 

 were more worthy of investigation. Mr. Way should 

 endeavour to compress what he had to say into the 

 space of half an hour, in order that those whose practical 

 experience it was so important to obtain, might h 

 opportunity of communicating it to the Society. 



The combined experience of those who had obtained 

 favourable results from the use of common salt went to 

 prove : — 



1. That common salt improved the quality and weight 

 per bushel of the grain of Wheat, Barley, and Oats. 



2. That it strengthens the straw of these cereal crops. 



3. That it increases the crop and improves the quality 

 of Swedes, Turnips, and Carrots, and still more of Man- 

 gold Wurzel. 



4. That it improves the quality of the Grass in heathy 

 pastui , and makes it more palatable to stock. 



5. ihat it kills wireworms and slugs, and destroys 

 noxious weeds. 



6 ] hat it promotes the health of animals when given 

 with their food. Common salt has also been found 

 beneficial to Potatoes, Peas, &c, but not so commonly 

 as t<> the other crops mentioned. 



Now, in order to establish the fact of the beneficial 

 action of salt, it was not necessary, in Mr. Way's 

 opinion, that every person should have obtained a 

 similar result ; nor was it necessary even that a mul- 

 titude of instances of success should be adduced. One 

 experiment, intelligently carried out and truthfully re- 

 ported, was sufficient to prove that salt has, in certain 

 conditions, a beneficial effect upon crops. On the 

 whole, however numerous may have been the cases of 

 failure (and it is to be remembered that failure is less 

 often reported than success), it must be allowed that 

 there was ample evidence to prove that common salt 

 exercises some influence on vegetation, and it was 

 worthy of observation that when employed in moderate 

 doses, this influence has rarely been found to be noxious 

 or prejudicial. The question then was as to the nature 

 of that influence : that salt kills wireworms and slugs, 

 if a fact, is one of those facts which needs no demon- 



- M A • 1 ■ M _ __ 



indeed the last figure was a manifest exn -eration, since in 

 the ash of 26 samples of Wheat examii I by him, only 

 four cases had occurred in which common salt could be 

 detected at all, and the amount mentioned above was the 

 average of those four cases. This was a very important 

 fact, and one which must be steadily kept in view, in 

 attempting to discover the part played by salt in vege- 

 tation. If it was contended that common salt was part 

 of the food of plants (and it must be remembered, that 

 in speaking of the food, at all events of the mineral 

 food of plants, we could only be guided by what we 

 found in them), then how came it to be absent from the 

 grain of Wheat in 22 out of 26 instances ? 



Mr. Way observed that it was at all times dangerous 

 to generalise to too great an extent, and then fore it 

 might hardly be safe to say that what applied to Wheat 

 must also apply to Mangold and Turnips ; that since 

 common salt was not a necessary ingredient of Wheat, 

 its existence in such large quantities in Mangold was 

 also accidental ; but it must be allowed that the nature 

 of the respective plants in some measure justified such 

 a conclusion. The grain of Wheat, for instance, con- 

 tained, when ripe, from 10 to 1 5 per cent, of water, and 



But at all events it so happened that the 

 soils upon winch salt has been most successfully 

 employed ; that is to say, the light and open soils, wcra 

 precisely those in which the decay of manure is very 

 rapid, and in which consequently there would be less 

 necessity for the kind of assistance which salt was con- 

 sidered capable of affording. Although he did not 

 intend to deny the possibility that salt might be bene- 

 ficial, in consequence of the property imputed to it of 

 decomposing vegetable matter, Mr. Way observed that 

 we must seek some further explanation of its action. 



He had now to bring before their notice a property 

 of salt, which, so far as he could learn, was entirely new. 

 When a portion of a soil is shaken up with water, and 

 the mixture allowed to stand till it gets clear, or is 

 otherwise rendered so by filtration, the presence of a 

 little lime, in the state of sulphate and other soluble- 

 salts, will generally be detected by the proper tests. 



If instead of water, a weak solution of common salt 

 was employed, the indication of lime in the liquid would 

 be immeasurably greater than in the other instance. 

 Now if common salt was acted on by soils in the same 

 way as salts of ammonia and potash—its base, soda, 

 being absorbed by the soil, and lime uniting to the- 

 muriatic acid — this dissolving out of lime would be of 

 easy explanation. * 



Mr. Way had, indeed, on a former occasion, stated 

 that soda was subject to the same law of absorption as 



85 or 90 per cent of dry matter. In the Turnip or the other bases mentioned, 'but he had at that time 



Ivl a.n <rn 1 1\ nn flip nnntfiw *lir» c * n ^ #»■? *k: j. i .. -. . 



Mangold, on the contrary, the state of things was ' 

 entirely reversed ; in these roots, for 10 or 15 per cent, 

 of dry vegetable matter, we find from 85 to 90 per cent, 

 of water. It was reasonable to suppose that this water 

 would contain a portion of any soluble salts existing in 

 the soil, and quite evident that from the quantity of 

 water present in the Turnip or Beet, we must expect to 



substances 







having nothing whatever to do with vegetation. 



The seeds of plants are, when ripe, individually 

 perfect, which no other parts of plants are. The stems 

 and other solid parts have always in them the un- 

 matured and circulating juices in all states of trans- 

 formation. On the other hand, in the seed of a plant, 

 every portion seems to become fixed. As the period of 

 final maturation approaches, all substances not actually 

 required for its well-being are excluded and expelled 

 from it. Finding phosphorus and sulphur, magnesia 

 ami potash, in large quantity in the ripened seed, but 

 failing to detect common salt there, we are justified in 

 supposing that the former {substances are, and that the 

 latter is not, indispensably necessary as an element of 

 vegetable nutrition. 



It remained to be seen whether ih*> nr^ n <*A ^r „,™ 



the 



quality of Wheat? in what way strengthen the 



•tow of corn crops ? of what nature is its influence 



apon Turnips and Mangold Wurzel? these are the 



pomts which demand the attention and investigation of 

 science. & 



Now the advocates of common salt have been in the 

 nabit of explaining its action by reference to many 

 nk T Dt S ropmies - The y h ave called it a stimulant to 

 on! *l 1S in ***% no km <* of explanation, but 



™V the assertion of the fact. Common salt is observed 



uW T 5 an ,n 1 creased and energetic vegetation, and it is 

 thL i md t0 stimu] ate ; but how it brings about 

 «s result we are not told. The property of salt of 

 -^racting moisture had alsQ been referred tQ M ftc _ 



-tuning for its action. There was no doubt that sait 



increase the proportion of moisture in the soil but 



* very small extent. Mr. Way had made a' cal 



«on by which he found that 20 bushels of salt 



.a to an acre of land, would, if it attracted water 



* m ^ entirel y dissolved, add only half a per cent. 



01 Moisture to that nrriin*ri1ir m, ■■ ■ :„ *u. Am ^ 



to the circumstance, that, although common salt, as a 

 whole, might not constitute any portion of the food of 

 plants, the alkali which it was capable of furnishing 

 might yet be of great importance to vegetation. Common 

 salt is the muriate of soda, that is to say, the alkali soda 

 combined with muriatic acid. Now, it has been already 

 shown that this compound is not a necessary constituent 

 of the grain of Wheat. In the analyses of Wheat-ash 

 before mentioned, soda was generally detected in small 

 quantity ; in comparison, however, with that of potash 

 the proportion was so minute as to lead to great doubts 

 whether soda was indispensable to the crop in question. 

 In the root crops soda is frequently found in laro-e quan- 

 tity in other forms of combination besides tha°t of the 

 muriate ; but even here its presence was not constant, 

 for he (Mr. Way) had examined several samples of 

 turnips m which no soda existed beyond that combined 

 with muriatic acid. 



Taking these two circum stances together— the entire 

 absence in some cases of common salt from seeds and 

 the equally well^certained absence of other salts of 

 this alkali from Turnips and other root crops— he was 



mcreased absorption of moisture caused * S^f^^^^ -^-"tffiTf^ 



etr\a*J , V r^ 1 ^"* '" tne »oii. All 



^Penment made by Mr. Cuthbert Johnson, and quoted 

 P^ovin th excellenfc ***** on the use of adt_ na 



One °fl!i 8t 7 tu ***** I,mo c,,t ' c * was reaii y insignificant. 



to th?^ d ^ ° f a dried "^ that b * **P»^e 

 wit air for 18 hours gained 25 parts of moisture, 



sfcHnT, by Mr - Joh «8on, when ealted at the rate of 

 .* bushels an acre to gain 26, and at the rate of 12 



a constituent of the food of 

 plants was not satisfactorily made out 



It only remained, therefore, to examine in what way 

 salt could act as an agent of vegetation. The French 

 nad an excellent method of classifying the substances 



made no very definite experiments on this subject. 

 Subsequent ini ligations had shown him that some 

 soils, at all events, have no power of retaining this alkali* 

 and the soil which he had just used before them was 

 such an one ; it did not absorb soda irom common salt 

 How then were they to account for the quantity of lime 

 dissolved ? At present he was not in a position to say 

 with authority ; but as he had proved to his own 

 satisfaction that it did not arise from the presence 

 of any of the ordinary salts of lime in the soil* 

 he was led to believe that the common salt acted on 

 certain silicates of lime present, in a way as yet not 

 understood ; and at the same time as it afforded a supply 

 of lime to plants, gave rise probably to a modification of 

 silica important to the straw of the cereals. But 

 lea vini: out of the question this latter possibility, the 

 mere increase of the quantity of lime in a soluble con- 

 dition, might itself go far to account for the effects of 

 salt. Our whole system of agriculture was an 

 attempt to heighten and increase the energy of those 

 causes which operate naturally on a smaller scale. The> 

 appointed solvent of lime was probably carbonic acid, 

 but it is easy to conceive that the artificial cultivation 

 of certain crops would require more copious supplies of 

 this substance, than could be furnished by the usual 

 methods. Salt may, at this point, step in, and meet the 

 emergency in a way consistent with the functions of 

 the plant, and minister to the artificial wants of the 

 crop in an unusual and artificial manner. Mr. Way 

 was at present following up these experiments, from 

 winch he hoped to derive some information. 



It would be seen then, that the presence of larcre 

 quantities of common salt in root and other crops, might 

 be only a secondary result due to this substance, havm- 

 been executing its office as a solvent, and thus introduced 

 into the juices of the plant. 



Having now taken the liberty of adding another theory 

 to the already too large list on the action of common 

 salt, and having expressed his opinion in favour of those 

 views, which held it to be an agent rather than an element 

 of vegetation, he would leave the further discussion of 

 the question in the hands of the meeting. 



Notices to Correspondents. 



Ashes : IT. Burnt clay soil mixed with ashes of weeds is *ood 

 manure for Turnips. Sea-weed may be mixed with dung in 

 compost for Turnips. It is better used when still succulent 

 tnan when dried. 



Clays : R JF C. We regret we hare not the time necessary for 

 the analysis of the specimens «ent. Any of them will no 

 doubt, improve a light soil ; and 25 cart loads is not a heavv 



Sfff ,D ^T qUlte .° th . erwise - lt iB a * ood th ™S to cut hay inta 

 tlS *H V,0g U !P h0WM - Them *chioe called Cow's? 

 made m Cheshire, and now copied by most maker* has ior 



S£S: t jT ri reCelTe<i the ^^ ° f thC EDglUh A^rtitorS 



Gbeew Manubing: CD. Mustard might be sown now to be 

 ploughed in as manure in autumn. ' 



Mabjoee: J N. We are not acquainted with the manure 

 advertised in the prospectus you have sent. manure 



