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ABSTEACT REPORT OF AGRICULTURAL 
DISCUSSIONS. 
Meeting of Weekly Council, Wednesday, February 17th. Lord 
Feversham in the Chair. Mr. J. B. Lawes, of Kothamsted, Herts, 
introduced the subject of 
The Action of Common Salt as Manure. 
He said : Salt is a substance very largely used, by the agriculturists 
of Great Britain, and supposed to possess very valuable properties. 
Among its other advantages, it is said largely to increase the pro- 
duction of grain and straw, and to improve the quality of both. It 
has also the reputation of producing very great effects on certain 
crops of marine origin, such for example as mangold wurzel, for 
which it is much used, and of fixing ammonia in the soil, and 
conveying moisture in dry seasons. Many experiments on the 
advantages resulting from the use of salt have been published, but I 
do not propose to refer to them, because last year certain owners of 
salt works offered a prize for the best essay on that subject ; and when 
published, it will doubtless contain all that is known as to the good 
qualities of salt. There is great difficulty in arriving at definite con- 
clusions with regard to the actual value of manures, and forming a 
correct pounds-shillings-and-pence notion of their effects in the soil. 
Sinclair states, as the result of experiments made in 1817, that 
while 45 tons of dung gave between 40 and 50 bushels of wheat 
per acre, Gi bushels of salt gave above 70 bushels, and 45 bushels of 
salt gave above 90 bushels. Experiments such as these, however, 
cannot be accepted in the present day ; and I propose to pass over 
results published with regard to salt, and to confine myself to some 
experiments which have been carried on upon my own farm. 
The field to which I am now about to refer was manured for turnips 
in 1839, after which there were removed from the land, barley in 1840, 
peas in 1841, wheat in 1842, and oats in 1843, without any manure 
being applied, by which the land was brought into a level and compa- 
ratively exhausted condition. In 1843 it was sown with wheat, and 
has boon under that crop ever since. The particular experiments to 
which I am going to refer were conducted on plots A and B, consisting 
of about one-third of an acre each, and running parallel to each other 
down the field. With one exception these two plots have, for 20 years, 
received exactly the same description and amount of artificial manure 
each year. In 1844, 1845, and 1846 they received the same manures ; 
in 1817 one received rather more artificial manure than the other, and 
therefore T pass over those years. The Table to wbich I am going 
to refer gives the average produce of 1848, 1849, and 1850; for 
1851, 1852, and 1853 ; and then for the last ten years. The difference 
