THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
77 
excrements of plants proceeds, depends on the 
composition of the soil, and on its greater or 
less porosity. It will take place very quickly 
in a calcareous soil; for the power of organic 
excrements to attract oxygen and to putrefy is 
increased by contact with the alkaline constitu- 
ents, and by the general porous nature of such 
kinds of soik which freely permit the access of 
air. But it requires a longer time in heavy 
soils consisting of loam or clay. 
The same plants can be cultivated with ad- 
vantage on one soil after the second year, but 
in others, not until the fifth or ninth, merely on 
account of the change and destruction of the 
excrements, which have an injurious influence 
on the plants, being completed in the one in the 
second year^ in the others, not until the ninth. 
la some neighborhoods clover will not thrive 
till the sixth year, in others, not till the twelfth; 
flax in the second or third year. All this de- 
pends on the chemical nature of the soil, for it 
has been found by experience, that in those dis- 
tricts where the intervals at which the same 
plants can be cultivated with advantage are very 
long, the time cannot be shortened even by the 
use of the most powerful manures. The de- 
struction of the peculiar excrements of one 
crop must have taken place before a new crop 
can be produced. 
Flax, peas, clover and even potatoes, are 
plants, the excrements of which, in argillaceous 
soils, require the longer time for their conver- 
sion into humus; but it is evident that the use 
of alkalies and burnt lime, £»r even small quam 
titles of ashes which have not been lixi rated, 
must enable a soil to permit the cultivation of 
the same plants in a much shorter time. 
A soil lying fallow owes its earlier fertility, 
in part, to the destruction or convertion into hu- 
mus of the excrements contained in it, which is 
effected during the fallow season, at the same 
time that the land is exposed to a further disin- 
tegration. 
In the soils in the neighborhood of the Rhine 
and Nile, which contain much potash, and 
where crops can be obtained in close succession 
from the same field, the fallowing of the land is 
superseded by the inundation; the irrigation of 
meadows effects the same purpose. It is be- 
cause the water of the rivers and streams con- 
tain oxygen in solution that it effects the most 
complete and rapid putrefaction of the excre- 
ments contained in the soil which it penetrates, 
and in which it is continually renewed. If it 
was the -water alone which produced this effect, 
marshy meadows should be most fertile. Hence 
it is not sufficient in irrigating meadows to con- 
v'ert them into marshes, by covering, for seve- 
ral months, their surface with water, which is 
not renewed; for the advantage of irrigation 
consists principally in supplying oxygen to the 
roots of plants. The quantity of water neces- 
sary for this purpose, is very small, so that it is 
sufficient to cover the meadow with a veiy thin 
layer, if this be frequently renewed. — Liebig. 
Faith and Works. — There is no pursuit in 
life in which the union of faith and works is 
more necessary, or productive of better effect, 
than in that of farming. This is well illustra- 
ted by the following little story, which we have 
somewhere heard or read. At the early settle- 
ment of New Hampshire, the inhabitants of a 
town in the interior consisted chiefly of Irish or 
Scotch Presbyterians, who among other things 
adopted the following custom. When their 
fields were planted and sewn, the minister, with 
his elders, deacons and the farmers, visited e^h 
field in succession, offering up a short prayer 
at each, that their labors might result in a plen- 
tiful harvest. One day the procession engaged 
in this pious perambulation arrived at a field, 
where the minister stopped, took a quick but 
keen survey, and then addressed his flock to this 
purport; “My friends and brethren, we mav pass 
along; it will be of no use to pray over this 
field, till there is more manure spread upon it; 
otherwise, even the prayer of a righteous man, 
howtxtrjervent, cannot be effectual. — Alb. CuU. 
SALT IN AGRICULTURE. 
Every farmer knows the beneficial effects of 
common salt, (Muriate of Soda,) in certain de- 
partments of agricultural economy- But the 
fact that so small quantities are used, is proof 
abundant, that all its good effects are not thor- 
oughly understood And were they known and 
acknowledged, there would a question arise 
whether a full and general use of it would war- 
rant the expense which its present prices neces- 
sarily involves. 
We give our readers a few extracts on the 
benefit of salt in farming, from a work on that 
subject, published by C. W. John.son') England. 
Mr. Johnson speaks first of the farmers of 
Padstow Harbor, who annually bring 50,600 
single horse cart loads of sea sand a distance of 
four or five miles, and spread it upon their land 
for the benefit the salt gives it. 
In speaking of its benefits to wheat, he says: 
“Salt rarely causes the wheat plants to grow 
larger or taller, but fills up the ear better, and 
brings the feeble plant forward. 
Sinclair says, “Salt appears to lessen the pro- 
duce of straw and increase the weight of grain. 
Johnson recommends that salt be spread over the 
land some time before sowing, in quantities of 
not less than ten bushels or more than twenty 
bu.shels to the acre. He gives the following re- 
sult of an experiment tried on light, gravelly 
soil. 
No. 1. Soil without any manure for four 
years, gave 13 bushels, 26 lbs. per acre. 
No. 2, Soil manured with -stable dung to the 
previous erop, potatoes 2,6 bushels, ,52 lbs, per 
acre. 
No, 3. Soil with five bushels of salt per acre, 
and no other manure for four years, 26 bushels, 
12 lbs. per acre. 
An Essex (Eng.) farmer, Mr. Baynes, had his 
doubts of the value of salt removed by the fol- 
lowing result; sandy, dry soil. Produce in bush- 
els per acre: 
Soil dressed with 15 loads of stable dung per 
acre, 17i bu-shels. 
Soil dressed with 14 bushels of salt per acre, 
immediately after the seed was sown, 36i bush. 
Mr, Johnson recommends the application of 
salt as a remedy for smut, blight and mildew, 
by the following process. Take one pound of 
salt to a gallon of water and throw it over the 
plants with a brush. 
For barley, Mr. Ransome of Suffolk county, 
gives the following result: 
Soil without any manure, 30 bushels per acre. 
Soil dressed with 16 bushels of salt per acre, 
in March, gave 51 bushels per acre. A light 
sandy soil. 
Turneps, Mangel, Wertzel, tf-c. — An experi- 
ment is reported by Sir Thomas Ackand of De- 
vonshire, and another from Mr. Hares of Buck- 
inghamshire, which though not so specific in 
results, are commendatory of it for these crops, 
if the soil is light and sandy. In clayey soils 
thw found no good benefit. 
Mr. Johnson recommends the application “of 
from ten to twenty bushels of salt to the acre for 
potatoes, to be spread on the surface as soon as 
the potatoes are planted, or ten bushels the pre- 
vious fall and ten after planting.” 
He gives the following results ofexperiments 
with potatoes, on a light, gravelly soil. Pro- 
duce in bushels per acre. 
No. 1. Soil without any manure, 120. 
2. Soil manured Avith twenty bushels of salt 
the previous September, 192. 
3. Soil manured with stable dung at the time 
of planting, 2l8. 
4. Soil manured with stable dung and 20 
bushels of salt, 234. 
5. Soil manured with 40 bushels of salt alone, 
20th September previous, and 20 immediately 
after planting, 192^. 
6. Soil manured with 40 bushels of salt, as 
in last experiment, and also with stable dung, 
244. 
Rev. E. Cartwright of Tunbridge, gives a 
similar result to his experiments, and says, “of 
ten different manures, most of which are of 
known and acknowledged efficacy, salt, -n'ith 
one exception, is superior to them ail. In speak- 
ing upon its efficacy upon live stock, he quotes 
Mr. Curwen, M. P. of Cumberland, who deals 
it out in the following mea.sure: 
For b orses 6 ounces per day. 
Milch Cows 4 
Feeding Oxen 6 “ “ 
Yearling 3 “ “ 
Calves 1 “ “ 
Sheep 2 to 4 “ per week. 
“If kept on diy' pasture or fed on turneps, give 
it without stint. It is supposed that if sheep 
have a regular supply of it, they wall never be 
affected by the ro-t. Mr. Butcher for years em- 
ployed salt for his cattle and sheep, on his farm 
in Norfolk. One of his fields was so unfavora- 
ble to sheep before he used salt, that he lost ten 
or twelve in a night, when feeding on the tur- 
neps, but after be adopted salt he never lost one. 
He gaye his .sheep salt without stint; but re- 
marked that tliey always used four times the salt 
on this particular field, than when on any other 
on the farm. This field wms one year rented to 
a neighbor who did not use salt. After losing 
ten sheep the first night, the tenant gave up the 
field in despair.” 
On a garden of sandy soil, owned by Mr, 
George Johnson, the following experiments 
were tried, wuth the results attached. 
Windson Beans —Vroduce in bushels per 
acre: 
1. Soil without any manure, l35i. 
2. Soil dressed with 20 bushels of salt per 
acre, w’eek before seed time, 217. 
Onions.- — Produce per acie: 
i. Soil manured with 20 bushels of salt and 
10 tons of farmyard manure. 
Tons. cwt. qrs. lbs. 
3 12 3 12 
2. Soil manured with 12 tons 
of farm yard manure. , . . .2 
Carrots . — Produce per acre: 
1. Soil manured with 20 bush- 
els of salt and 20 tons of 
manure 23 
2. Soil 20 tons of manure only 22 
3. Soil manured wuth 20 bush- 
els of salt only 18 
4. Soil without manure 13 
Parsnips. — Produce per acre; 
1. Yard manure, 20, salt tw'enty 
bushels 6 
2. Yard manure, 20 tons 5 
Early Potatoes. — Soil w’ithout any manure, 
308 bushels. 
Soil manured with 27 bushels of salt per 
acre, 584 bushels. 
10 2 19 
6 
18 
15 
11 
18 
26 
00 
00 
00 
00 
In conclusion, Mr. Johnson says, “if I wish- 
ed to irhprove a soil of what is termed an old, 
worn-out garden, exhausted by fifty years crop- 
ping or more, I w'ould give it (i or a ^ part at a 
time,) a good dressing of lime in the autumn, 
spreading it as soon as it is slacked, and forking 
it immediately. I would a week or two after 
that, dig and trench it well in the rough, and lay 
it up for the frost to act upon; and then in the 
spring, I would give it a good dressing of salt, 
(not less than six bushels to the acre.) The 
good effect of such a treatment would be mani- 
fest for tw'o or three years alter.” 
Let the American farmer remember, that we 
give the above sketches as the experimental re- 
sults of an English cultivator, and in no wmy 
responsible for the success thereof attending, as 
in all cases sure in our climate, still we have no 
doubt, indeed we knoiv, from actual experiment, 
that its value in agriculture is very great here, 
more, to be sure, on some soils and with some 
crops than with others. Thus, writh w'heat, we 
believe it highly valuable, while with corn, we 
should think it worse than liq^hing. For flax it 
has a good effect, also for tubeous and bulbous 
plants. How much further its use extends, we 
are not prepared to say', but fdoubt not that for 
our grasses, fruit orchards and gardens, it 
would, under a fav'orable state of things, be 
highly benefisial . — Berkshire Fa.rvicr^ 
