268 
DRAINING LAND PROMOTES HEALTH. 
plow it in before winter, or to do this before 
spring sowing. 
“ The foregoing considerations would lead to 
the adoption of autumnal manuring, immediate¬ 
ly followed and covered by the plow, by which 
means, the manure would be thoroughly incor¬ 
porated with the soil during the three or four 
months they would be intermixed. The main 
objection to that system was heretofore consid¬ 
ered to be that the fertilising elements of the 
manure, were, in a great measure, lost by the 
washing of the winter rains. The observations, 
however, made of late years, on the absorbent 
powers of all soils, except those composed main¬ 
ly of sand, and which have been recently de¬ 
monstrated by the highly important and inter¬ 
esting experiments of Professor Way, have 
clearly established the fact that the soil has the 
peculiar property of absorbing and appropri¬ 
ating all those elements of manures intermixed 
with it which are essential to the growth of 
plants—the most valuable discovery, perhaps, 
in its results, for which agriculture has been in¬ 
debted to science.” 
DRAINING LAND PROMOTES HEALTH. 
We establish expensive sanatory regulations 
to prevent epidemics, but little is ever said in 
this country about draining lands to promote 
health. 
A French gentleman, who purchased a large 
tract of marshy land, reduced the per-centage of 
sickness upon his estate from twenty to one 
half of one per cent, in a few years, by drainage 
alone. We have read a graphic account of an 
experiment of this kind, with similar results, in 
Georgia. Governor Hammond, of South Car¬ 
olina, has rendered large tracts of pestilential 
swamp inhabitable, by the same means. 
The healthiness of large districts of England, 
not swamp, has been greatly improved by the 
thorough system of underdraining lately prac¬ 
tised in that country. 
-►«.- 
POULTRY EXPERIMENTS. 
I notice in the June number of the Agricultu¬ 
rist, page 193, that T. B. Miner takes exceptions 
to my using the word “about.” My reason for 
doing so, was, that it might vary one or two eggs 
either way, not having taken the account for 
publication; and besides, it is the same word 
he uses in the introduction, by saying “ about 
80,” &c. I have no experiments to offer until 
this season is past. 
If your correspondent will wait, I will give 
him the result. R. Linsley. 
West Meriden , Ct., July, 1851. I 
THE USE OF SALT IN AGRICULTURE. 
A lecture on the Agricultural Employment 
of Common Salt was lately delivered before the 
Weekly Council of the Royal Agricultural Soci¬ 
ety of England, by Professor Way, which elicited 
the following interesting observations from Pro¬ 
fessor Simonds and other members of the so¬ 
ciety :—• 
Professor Simonds said that “ he was not then 
prepared to enter fully on the subject; but he 
might remark, as a general rule, that although 
different conclusions had been drawn from the 
use of salt, according to the amount, and under 
the circumstances it had been supplied, it was 
exceedingly beneficial in moderate quantities, 
but prejudicial in large ones, as a condiment for 
the food of animals. He was aware that it had 
been considered by some persons to be injurious 
in producing abortion in ewes and cows. His 
experience, however, had not led him to such an 
opinion; for even when large quantities of salt 
had been given to animals, he had not found 
that it exerted any specific action on the uterine 
system, such as that which the ergot of many 
grasses was so well known to exert both vio¬ 
lently and deleteriously on those organs. He 
thought undue quantity of food and plethora 
the more probable cause of abortion. It was 
difficult to fix the limit in which salt should be 
given to animals. Professor Way had placed 
in his hands a tabular statement of the amount 
of common salt contained in various kinds of 
herbage, from which he had been enabled to 
estimate the amount of that substance constant¬ 
ly taken into the stomachs of grazing cattle 
along with their ordinary food. He showed 
that cart horses, feeding on meadow hay, bean 
meal, and bran, took in a considerable daily 
proportion of salt; that in other cases, the hay 
was salted ; and that the free use of rock salt 
was common on a farm; while the animals thus 
receiving these supplies of salt were not only 
uninjured by its use, but absolutely benefited 
in their health, gaining vigor and strength. 
Sheep fed on clover hay and turnips would not 
receive so large a proportion of saline matter, 
and might therefore have more salt given to 
them in addition to their food. Horses might 
take with advantage from an ounce and a half 
to two ounces of salt daily; but an excess of it, no 
doubt, would render animals weak, debilitated, 
and unfit for exertion. Similar facts were appli¬ 
cable also to oxen, which accumulated flesh fast¬ 
er by the judicious use of salt than without it. 
Arthur Young, in his examination before a com¬ 
mittee of the House of Commons, in 1818, had 
