118 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
to some of my ■iieighbor&, as the bad quality of 
the butter in our market has been a subject of 
continual complaint and inquiry during the past 
winter. 'I’o find one of the causes, no one need 
go far. Let him only ride 20 miles in any di- 
rection, during the severe winter just past, and 
he would have seen hundreds of these poor 
abused creatures, the cows, standing around, 
(not even permitted to enter,) the log barns 
which appear to have been made expressly for 
free ventilation, chewing the cud, not of “sweet 
and bitter fancjq” but some old dry cornstalk, 
or perchance, if so fortunate as to have a saw 
mill in their vicinity, a nice strip of bark gnaw- 
ed from a log that had lain in water till sour 
and half rotten, looking for all the world as if 
they could give their owmer more tears than 
milk. This is no “fancy sketch” — and now 
need one ask why the butter is poorl 
With good cows, well fed, and a place to raise 
the cream without freezing, there is no difficulty 
in the matter. If the natural richness of the 
milk does not impart sufficient color, take deep 
colored carrots, (the Altringham is best,) grate 
fine, pour boiling water on the pulp, and strain 
into the cream till sufficiently colored; so far 
from imparting a carroty taste, it gives addition- 
al sweetness and richness to the butter. Yolks 
of eggs beaten up, two to a gallon of cream, do 
very well. These are the only coloring mate- 
rials I ever used. 
1 have extended this communication to a 
greater length than I intended, and if I have 
been led into prolixity, (which, by the Avay, I 
detest,) a desire to assist beginners, for whom 1 
have written, must be my apology. Should any 
experienced dairy woman he in possession of 
important facts on this or any other subject, 
which are not familiar to all, I hope she will not 
withhold them from your readers. m. w. h. 
Albany Cultivator. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH SALT. 
Ge.^tlemen. — I with pleasure comply with 
your request, and give )ma the detail of my ex- 
periments in the use of salt as a manure. In 
the spring of 1838, we broke up six acres of 
sward land that had been mowed a number of 
years, intending to plant it to corn, but observed 
when ploughed that the ground was infested 
with worms- the yellow cut or wire worm, and 
black grubs. As we had mostly lost our com 
crop the year previous by having the first plant- 
ing almost entirely destroyed by the corn-worm 
above described, wc expected a like calamity 
would follow the present year, unless some pre- 
ventive could be used to destroy the worms; and, 
having frequetitly and unsuccessfully used all 
the recommended remedies to destroy the corn- 
worms, v/e were induced, at the suggestion of an 
English laborer, to try salt. After the ground 
was thoroughly harrowed, five bushels per acre 
was sown broadcast, leaving a strip of near half 
an acre on each side of the field, to satisfactori- 
ly test the experiment. The whole was then 
planted to corn and potatoes. The corn on the 
part no salt was sown was mostly' eaten up by 
the worms, and was reploughed and planted to 
potatoes. The potatoes on the whole lot Avere 
a good crop, but decidedly better where the salt 
was applied. 1 regret that we did not ascertain 
by measurement the actual result. There was 
a very perceptible difference in the appearance 
of the vines during the whole summer. On the 
part where the salt was sown they grew larger 
and were of a darker green color, and continued 
green longer in the fall than the others. In the 
spring of 1839 ive spread on a good coat of ma- 
nure, and planted it all to com, except about 
half an acre of the salted land, vffiich was plan- 
ted to Rohan potatoes. The Rohans were the 
best crop of potatoes I ever saw. Seed planted 
(two and a half bushels) produced over three 
hundred bushels. The largest potatoe weighed 
lour and three fourth pounds. The com was a 
heavy crop, but was not measured. The sum- 
mer was very dry and hot; but the com on the 
salted land did not appear to sufier at all from 
1 he drought, while the other was considerably 
injured. The salted land appeared always 
moist, and the growth of everything upon it was 
A-ery rapid. We found great difficulty in keep- 
ing the weeds down. After three successive 
hoeings, we were obliged in August to give it a 
hand weeding. Spring of 1849, intended to 
have stocked the land down for meadoAAq but, 
thinking it too rich for oats, planted potatoes 
Avitliout manure. Crop good. The effects of 
the salt still very apparent. Adjudged to be 
one-ffiird more potatoes where the land was 
salted. 
Spring of 1841, sowed a part of the lot to 
oats — the remainder to potatoes and onions 
Aviihout manure. The onions were a great crop. 
The sumu.er aa'us very dry, but they did not suf- 
fer; while other crops in this neighborhood, on 
similar soils, were nearly' destroyed by the 
drought. The oats were a heavy crop, and 
much lodged on the salted part. The clover 
grew well and produced a fine crop of fall seed. 
This I cannot account for, except by supposing- 
that the salt kept the land moist, or attracted 
moisture from the atmosphere, as I know of no 
other piece of land in the tOAvn that was well 
seeded last year. It AA'as almost an entire fail- 
ure; and the most of the land stocked down last 
spring has been or will be ploughed up in the 
spring to be re-seeded. 
We soAved salt the same spring on a part of 
our meadoAA's. The grass Avas evidently im- 
proA'ed, the result satisfactory, and Ave shall 
continue to use it on our meadows. I shall not 
at this time force upon your readers any opin- 
ions of mine respecting the manner in which 
salt operates beneficially upon vegetation or the 
soil. The following quotations from English 
authors, if you see fit to publish them, will shoAV 
that the subject is not a new one; and perhaps 
your readers may glean some information from 
them. 
In Europe much has been said and AA'ritten to 
prove and to disprove the utility of salt as a ma- 
nure. Without entering at all into their ideas 
of the modus operandi, we may judge from the 
effects of experiments. I may say, however, 
that it has been supposed beneficial in small 
quantities, by its tendency to promote putrefac- 
tion, and injurious in large proportions, because 
it then exerts its antiseptic powers. It has been 
supposed of benefit, by destroying snails, grubs, 
moles, &c. in the ground. 
“It is observed by Dr. Darwin, that as it is a 
stimulus Avhich possesses no nourishment, but 
may excite the vegetable absorbent vessels into 
greater action than usual, it may, in a certain 
quantity, increase their growth, by taking up 
more nourishment in a given time, and perform- 
ing their circulation and secretions with greater 
energy. In a greater quantity, its stimulus may 
be so great as to act as an immediate poison on 
vegetables, and destroy the motions of the ves- 
sels by exhausting their irritability. The re- 
ports of experimenters on the use of salt as a 
manure have been as different as the soils on 
which their trials Avere made; owing, in some 
measure, to causes which can ncA^er be foreseen 
or controlled, and on Avhich agricultural experi- 
ment so generally depends. In sandy soil, salt 
has been found to exert effects superior to eight 
out of ten of the best manures. A quantity of 
ground Avas prepared and divided into beds of 
forty yards in length by one in breadth. The 
beds were then sowed and manured by the fol- 
lowing substances in the quantities mentioned: 
“No. 1. No manure. 
2. Salt, half a peck. 
3. Lime, 1 bushel. 
4. Soot, 1 peck. 
5. Wood ashes, 2 pecks. 
6. Saw-dust, 3 bushels. 
7. Malt dust, 2 pecks. 
8. Peat, 3 bushels. 
9. Decayed leaves, 3 bushels. 
10. Fresh dung, 3 bushels. 
11. Chandler’s graves, 9 lbs. 
“With the exception of chandler’s graves 
salt was decidedly the best of those used. On 
a trial of compounds, the combination of salt 
and soot was the best. The substances were 
mixed in the following order, and the same 
quantity of each employed as when used singly: 
“No. 1. Sail and lime. 
2. Salt and lime and sulphuric acid. 
3. Salt, lime and pea;. 
4. Salt, lime and dung. 
5. Salt, lime, gypsum and peat. 
6. Salt and soot. 
7. Salt and wood ashes. 
8. Salt and saw dust. 
9. Salt and marl dust. 
10. Salt and peat. 
11. Salt, peat and bone dust. 
12. Salt and decayed leaves. 
13. Salt and pearl ashes. 
14. Salt and Chandler’s graves. 
“Perhaps this superiority may be accounted 
for by the quality of saline substances to attract 
moisture from the air; for those beds where salt 
had been used were visibly and palpably moist- 
er than the rest, even for weeks after the salt had 
been applied; and the appearance continued un- 
til rain fell, when of course the distinction ceas- 
ed. In several instances the crop of the land 
failed altogether, except on the part where the 
salt was applied.” 
In Hindostan and China, all the land on the 
coast is regularly treated with sea-water; and 
they depend solely on this management for the 
increase and goodness of their rice crops. In 
Poland, salt is extensively used in the tillage of 
the land. 
Many valuable communications on the use 
of salt as a manure have been made to the Bri- 
tish board of agriculture. I may be allowed to 
mention tAvo further experiments made on this 
subject. 
To show the effects and advantages of salt 
properly applied to vegetables, the gardener of 
Lord R. Manners made the following experi- 
ment, in an extremely dry summer, upon a bare 
piece of pasture land out of which the cattle 
had* been taken for want of grass. He marked 
off four places, each of which Avas watered for 
nine successive nights in the following manner: 
the first with one gallon of spring water; the 
second with one gallon of the same water, con- 
taining one ounce of common salt; the third 
with the same quantity of water and two ounces 
of salt; and the fourth with the same quantity 
of water and three ounces of salt, which gave 
the following effects: 
The grass in the second place grew more 
abundant and of a darker green than in the first; 
in the third place it grew only by spots; for part 
ol it AA'as killed where the greatest quantity of 
water fell; and the fourth was quite killed, for a 
greater compass than the third; by which it ap- 
pears that an ounce of salt in a gallon of water 
had a better effect than the water alone; and that 
three ounces of salt mixed in a gallon of water 
was more than the grass could immediately re- 
ceive, but the fourth place, in the ensuing spring 
was the most fertile of them all. 
The other experiment I shall notice is related 
by Dr. Holland, well known by his agricultural 
survey of Cheshire. 
“After draining a piece of sour rushy ground 
about the middle of October, he ordered some 
refuse salt to be spread upon a part of the land 
at the rate of eight bushels to the acre, and in 
another part sixteen bushels. In a short time 
vegetation disappeared totally; and during tne 
month of AprilJ following not a blade of grass 
was to be seen. In the latter end of the month 
of May a most flourishing crop of rich grass 
made its appearance on that part where the 
eight bushels had been laid. In the month of 
July the other portion produced a still stronger 
crop. The cattle were remarkably fond of it; 
and during the whole of the ensuing winter, 
(which is ten or twelve years since,) and to this 
day, the land retained and yet exhibits a superi- 
or verdure to the neighboring closes.” 
John C. Mather. 
Schaghticoke, Feb. 8, 1843. 
Alaany Cultivator. 
