124 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
to the gallon was dissolved, No. 3, 2 ozs. of salt to the gallon, No. 4, 3 ozs. of salt 
to the gallon. The results were—No. 1 not different from the rest of the field. 
No. 2 the grass became of a much darker green and grew both larger and faster. 
No. 3 turned brown in patches, and No. 4 turned brown altogether, but 
recovered itself the following year, when it was the most luxuriant of all; from 
which it was inferred that 1 oz. to the gallon of water was the right proportion 
to produce immediate benefit.” It is very probable that the impression of its 
destructive nature may have been derived from a careless or improper method 
of application, which may be done either by using too great a proportion to 
the space operated upon, or by applying it at the wrong time, by which success 
is defeated and the practice condemned. 
The great object to be kept in view is the proper proportion to apply and 
the best time to apply it. Now it may be applied, and even liberally, to some 
growing crops with impunity; but to do so to others would be disastrous, 
although they are very partial to it when it can be absorbed into the system of 
the plant through the roots, and No. 4 in the above experiment bears upon this 
subject, which, considering that it turned out so well afterwards, and that it 
was presumed to be the result of the action of the rains of winter carrying it 
down, and thus diluting it and enabling the roots to take it up in a right pro¬ 
portion, points to the fact that by dressing the ground with salt as it becomes 
vacant, and is left to lie fallow for some time, it will become dissolved by atmo¬ 
spherical influences, and will pass into and become a very necessary constituent 
of the soil, and will be presented to the roots in such a state and proportion as 
that they may take it up without danger. 
The following are some of the particular instances, and the mode of appli¬ 
cation in which I have found the use of salt beneficial. I will take first our 
old favourite—Asparagus, which as a sea-side plant would, I have no doubt, 
take almost any amount of dressing with salt, or at any season ; but for prac¬ 
tical utility I have found 1 lb. to the square yard act with good effect, which, 
however, is not immediately evident, but is shown the following season by the 
increased size of the growth. I have generally applied it as soon as the cutting 
season is over and in showery weather. The same proportion will agree very 
well with Sea-kale, which is another sea-side plant; and it may be applied on 
the surface of the beds when they are pricked-up and dressed in the spring, 
after the cutting season is past. It is also highly beneficial to all the Brassica 
tribe, such as Cauliflowers, Broccoli, Winter Greens, and Cabbages; and it 
may be applied as a surface-dressing after the ground is turned up, or even 
afterwards when the crops are growing, or it may be used diluted in water. 
Salt is a great absorbent of atmospheric moisture, and I observed a striking 
instance of the benefit to be derived from its use in the dry season of last year, 
which was one of the driest in this neighbourhood of any on record; and it 
is well known how difficult it was to get Winter Greens along without an 
immensity of trouble and watering. In a garden near the railway-station I 
furnished a man with plants of the various Winter Greens for a good bed, and 
some time after he said, “ I have got a quantity of dirty salt which I have had 
swept out of the railway trucks ; would it do any good in my garden ?” “ By all 
means,” I said; “put it on that bed of Greens which look very indifferent.” 
It was, therefore, strewed over the surface among the plants, and a little water 
poured over, and through all the succeeding dry weather they grew and 
flourished as if it had been a genial moist season, and there were few such beds 
of winter stuff even in the best-managed gardens ; and this leads me to believe 
that it may have arisen from the capacity possessed by salt of absorbing and 
retaining a larger quantity of the night moisture than would be the case with 
ordinary dry soil. 
