140 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 14, 1890, 
SALT AS A GARDEN MANURE. 
Salt as a manure has long been applied to garden and farm 
crops. Its principal use, however, in gardens has been in the 
destruction of weeds, for it is well known that in large quantity it 
is destructive to vegetable life ; hence it is employed for scattering 
over walks, or they are watered with a strong solution of salt, to 
destroy the weeds and moss appearing on them. On the other 
hand, in moderate quantities its application is attended with very 
satisfactory results ; for, as remarked by Mr. Johnson in the 
“Science and Practice of Gardening,” page 119, “The day has 
long passed when it was disputed whether saline bodies are pro¬ 
motive of vegetable growth,” and the same author continues—“It 
is now determined that some plants will not even live without the 
means of procuring certain salts.” 
Although salt, or saline matter, enters the composition of all 
plants, it is evident, from the experiments made by Dr. Yoelcker, 
that the application of a quantity of salt which proves beneficial 
to one kind of plant will be injurious to another. This he de¬ 
monstrated by watering plants with water holding varied propor¬ 
tions of salt, and it is a remarkable fact that to most of the crops 
of the horticulturist even in very strong solutions it did not prove 
injurious. Even at the rate of twenty-four grains to a pint it 
“ decidedly benefited Radishes, Onions, Lentils, and Cabbages,” 
but “ plants of Anthoxanthum odoratum (Sweet Vernal Grass) 
were killed by a solution containing twenty-four grains of salt per 
pint, after the lapse of one month.” “ Grasses are affected by salt 
more readily than any of the plants experimented upon.” We 
may, therefore, conclude that salt in a certain quantity is beneficial 
to most vegetable crops, for we have Radishes or Raphanem, 
Crambe (Seakale), Brassica, including Cauliflower, Broccoli, Bore¬ 
cole, and Turnips ; Liliacem, including Onions, Leeks, and Aspara¬ 
gus, and, I may add, many of our most beautiful bulbous plants, 
and those with succulent leaves. Dr. Voelcker remarks, “ Bulbous 
plants and plants with succulent leaves are especially benefited by 
the application of salt ;” also Lentils, Peas, and Beans, and may 
we not safely conclude all the other Leguminosae, or pod-bearers, 
as the Dwarf Kidney Bean and Scarlet Runner ? Dr. Voelcker 
mentions the Thistle as being benefited by salt, and we may con¬ 
sider the Globe Artichoke and Cardoon to be equally so. Mr. 
Johnson completes the list on the authority of Saussure—viz., 
Beetroot, Rhubarb, Potatoes, Jerusalem Artichoke, Carrot, pro¬ 
bably also the Parsnip and Celery, as these two belong to the same 
natural order, so that salt is beneficial to every kind of vegetable 
crop. 
Of the value of salt there can be no doubt. In fact, from its 
application I have come to the conclusion that to the gardener 
it is one of the most valuable of manures. I have come to 
regard it as not only valuable, or, as stated by Mr. Thompson in 
“ The Gardener’s Assistant,” page 121, “a necessary addition to 
the soil wherever marine plants, or such as naturally grow near the 
sea, are cultivated ; ” but to all, except it be Grasses ; and even 
to these in small quantities, or less than for other plants, it is very 
beneficial. For some fruit trees it seems not to be so desirable as 
for others—for instance, the Apricot, Apple, and Cherry ; but the 
Peach, the Pear, and the Plum are benefited by it. I need say no 
more respecting its value, but will proceed to its application, of 
which there are several modes, but I shall only name two—namely, 
alone and mixed with other substances. 
Salt Applied Alone. —As a top-dressing salt may be applied to 
every kind of kitchen garden crop at the rate of ten bushels per 
acre, or half a gallon per rod. It may be given at the time of 
sowing, putting in, or planting the crop, but I consider it most 
advantageously applied when crops from seed have arrived at the 
thinning stage; to “put-in” crops, as Potatoes and Jerusalem 
Artichokes, it may be applied when they are well above ground, and 
before the first hoeing ; to planted crops as soon as they are again 
rooted. Ten bushels per acre I think a sufficient quantity for a 
general dressing. Some crops will bear much more salt than the 
quantity named ; for instance, Asparagus is not overdone at 1 lb. 
per square yard, or 43 cwts. per acre, and the best time to apply it 
is when the heads are appearing, and again early in May. 
Cabbages may have repeated applications of salt, and so may 
most of the Cabbage tribe. Cabbages planted in September to 
stand the winter may in October be dressed, and again in March ; 
Broccoli and Winter Greens after planting, and in October or early 
in November ; whilst for most other members of the same family 
one application will be sufficient. 
The value of salt as a manure may be esteemed principally from 
its entering into the composition of plants ; but it possesses other 
values—-one being that it is destructive to predatory vermin, such as 
slugs, and is found serviceable against grubs in Turnips, and club 
or ambury in the other representatives of the Cabbageworts. It 
has also another most valuable property—that of protecting plants 
from injury by cold, or as it is stated in the “ Science and 
Practice of Gardening,” page 144, it protects “ plants from suffer¬ 
ing by sudden reductions of temperature by entering into their 
system, stimulating and rendering them more vigorous, impreg¬ 
nating their sap, and consequently rendering it less liable to be 
congealed.” There can be no doubt of salt being advantageously 
used for plants of a succulent nature, such being liable to suffer in 
case of sudden reduction of temperature. 
Salt Mixed vnth Other Substances. —This, I believe, is the most 
satisfactory method, for all soils require to be constituted of 
several ingredients for the production of healthy plants. Gardens 
long enriched with stable or farmyard manure in time become sick 
or worn out. Lime dressings have been advised, and are indeed 
very beneficial, often more so than dressings of stable manure. 
“ When caustic lime or, as it is more commonly called, quicklime 
is added to a soil, it decomposes the salts of ammonia which the 
soil contains, driving off the ammonia, but which is absorbed and 
retained by the alumina in the soil. Caustic lime also promotes 
the rapid decay of vegetable and animal bodies in the soil ”—* 
(Science and Practice of Gardening, page 85). It has also been 
recommended to give dressings of fresh or maiden loam to long- 
cropped vegetable ground, choosing soil from a pasture, thus 
giving those very constituents which have been absorbed or taken 
up from the ground by every vegetable—viz , saline matters, and 
which are present in the maiden loam more than in old garden soil, 
because Grasses do not take up saline substances to nearly the same 
extent as do garden crops. Fresh soil mixed with old causes a change 
in the products : it gives to old soil an addition of one or other sub¬ 
stance required by vegetable crops, for it cannot be that fresh loam 
is richer, as without manure it will not grow many vegetables to a 
fitting condition ; therefore it is not in the fibres of the Grass 
about which so much is insisted, but in supplying those compounds 
of which the soil has been deprived by. a continued course of 
vegetable crops, and those compounds are principally saline. 
Lime does good, but it is known that “ when salt is mixed with 
moist earth and lime a considerable quantity of carbonate of soda 
and chloride of calcium is produced, owing to the salt being partially 
decomposed, the chlorine of a part of the salt uniting with the lime, 
whilst carbonic acid supplies its place, forming carbonate of soda. 
This having the property of combining with silica and rendering it 
soluble may prove beneficial to plants by supplying them with that 
essential article of their food ”•—(Gardener’s Assistant, page 121). 
Now, if we dress ground for Onions, one part with lime, another 
with salt, and a third with soot, the ground having in autumn been 
manured in the usual way, we find there is little, if any, difference 
between that limed and the part sown without the lime dressing— 
the produce is not materially greater ; but that dressed with salt 
produces more than the limed part, and the parts dressed with soot 
more still. This would show soot to be the most fertilising of the 
three, but in none of these cases is the dressing so good as when the 
whole are mixed—that is, the lime, salt, and soot, which afford 
much the better crop of Onions. A bushel of lime, soot, and salt 
mixed and sown broadcast over the ground intended for Onions 
and Carrots prior to putting in the seeds is good against the maggot 
or grub which infests these vegetables, and is sufficiently stimulat¬ 
ing. It is also an excellent dressing for ground in March intended 
to be planted with every kind of vegetable crop. It is valuable 
both as a manure and as a preventive and destroyer of insect pests. 
Everyone’ knows the value of guano as a manure. It is con¬ 
sidered to contain most, if not all, the constituents required by 
vegetables. I am persuaded, however, though it may be highly 
fertilising, that it is not so beneficial by itself as when mixed with 
salt, one of the inorganic elements that in guano is reckoned of very 
inferior value. In some guanos there is a considerable quantity of 
lumps, consisting for the most part of common salt (chloride of 
sodium). In the best samples of guano the chloride of sodium is 
about 3'00 ; of a sample consisting of hard lumps the chloride of 
sodium has been found as much as 49 70. Ordinary samples of 
Peruvian guano contain 5‘00 of alkaline salts, potash, and soda. 
This quantity may be sufficient for cereals, but there is evidently 
not enough salt for kitchen garden crops, for I find crops 
dressed with guano alone do not produce so well as those dressed 
with one part salt to two parts guano, and at that rate 1 cwt. of 
salt to 2 cwt. of guano answers for every description of vegetable, 
but it should not be given in dry weather, for all the leaves upon 
which it falls it scalds or leaves a white blotch upon. 
I may name a few of the cases in which I have found it most 
beneficial, though it answers well in all. 
1, I had some beds of Onions, Carrots, and Parsnips on a plot 
of old garden ground, well trenched and in good heart. They were 
at a complete standstill, and grub already at work, making frequent 
wide gaps. They were dressed with the mixed guano and salt, 
about a peck to every two beds, each 4 feet wide and 40 feet long. 
This was previous to prospects of rain, and it fell as was anti- 
