SEPT. 4© 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
624 
reason why salt should be good for wheat; 
and yet no one can put together all the test¬ 
imony about the matter, without being con¬ 
vinced that it does sometimes pay to use it for 
this crop. One fanner who, on a soil that 
was too light, hot and dry, got poor crops of 
Spring wheat, with a top-dressing of three 
bushels of salt harvested 25 bushels from the 
same soil, and with four bushels of salt har¬ 
vested 29 bushels. Another can get fair crops 
of Whiter wheat without salt on the same soil 
that for Spring wheat requires a liberal dress¬ 
ing of salt, as he thinks, to hold the moisture 
in time of drought. We are told that so careful 
and successful a farmer as the late John John¬ 
ston was accustomed to set great value on salt 
for wheat, for earlier ripening and stronger 
straw. Again, we find it stated that a bushel 
of salt is good for an increase of four bush¬ 
els of grain. A Wisconsin Farmers’ Club ar¬ 
rived at the conclusion based, it is to be pre¬ 
sumed, on the experience of its members, that 
salt hastens the maturity of the grain, increas¬ 
es the yield 25 or SO per cent, stiffens the 
straw, prevents mst and smut, and at least 
checks the ravages of the chinch bug—a good 
deal to claim for salt. A Pennsylvania farmer 
with refuse salt from the packing houses gets 
24 to 30 bushels of wheat to the acre on a soil 
which without salt would not yield a crop 
worth cutting. 
Voelcker speaks of the use of salt as fre¬ 
quent in England as a top-dressing for Spring 
wheat, mixed with an equal quantity of nit¬ 
rate of soda, or Chili saltpeter, Bretschneider 
in Germany found that with nitrate of soda, 
which used alone gave but little increase of 
crop, the use of salt might pay, as it gave 
an increase of IS per cent, of grain, but used 
with sulphate of ammonia it gave only ten 
per cent, increase over the ammonia compound 
used alone, and with guano it gave no increase 
over guano alone, except in regard to the 
straw. Many results of trials of salt on 
wheat are given in the Journal of the Royal 
Agricultual Society. Hannan in 1*14 found 
only a slight tendency to increase the yield 
ancl weight per bushel. Tn a 
sufficiently large dose of salt, be made to last 
longer and go further than it otherwise would. 
Salt in solution in the soil water may confer 
on that water an increase of solvent power 
for substances really needed by the plant, such 
as potash, lime, magnesia and phosphoric acid, 
as has been proved by numerous experiments. 
Salt may also, with the cooperation of the 
carbonate of lime in the soil, serve to increase 
the amount of nitrogen in the really valuable 
form of nitrate at the disposal of the crop. It 
is also affirmed by Voelcker that salt prolongs 
the vegetative period, and thus by keeping the 
crop for a longer period in a growing condi¬ 
tion and causing it to feed on the soil for a 
longer time it may cause the production of a 
larger crop, i believe that in this capacity 
of providing in one way or another a larger 
supply of food for the crop out of the stores of 
difficultly assimilable material in the soil, the 
most satisfactory explanation of the effect of 
salt is to be found where any effect at all is 
produced. On a poor soil, scantily provided 
with plant food, it will therefore do no good, 
as there is no material for it to act upon to in¬ 
crease the quantity of food accessible to the 
plant. 
Shall we use salt on wheat, and if we shall, 
when and how shall we apply it? The evi- 
small part of the readers of the Rural would 
try the experiment this year, and for two or 
three years following, and report the result, 
together with a careful statement of the char¬ 
acter of the season and of the soil, we might 
have a satisfactory solution of this as yet un¬ 
answered question, whether the use of salt on 
wheat is generally profitable. 
A BUSHEL FROM EVERY POUND. 
One Pound vs. Three to Five. 
PROFESSOR A. E, BLOUNT. 
That a bushel of wheat, on an average all 
over the country, should be produced from 
every pound sown ought to be a fact, and not 
an expression in so many words. That a 
bushel can be raised from every pound of 
wheat sown under all ordinary' circumstances 
is a fact that farmers should verify every 
season. So long as they sow 90 to 120 pounds 
per acre, generally on poor land or on land 
poorly prepared, there will always be small 
crops and poor seed. When it takes three to 
five pounds of seed to raise a bushel, it is, to 
say least, a ruinous waste. Enough is 
wasted in such seeding to supply with bread 
the whole wheat-producing population the 
year round; ami not only is this direct loss 
sustained, but another—viz., thick seeding m. 
pnze essay on 
cropping light land, written in 1853, the use 
of salt at the rate of two to four cwt. per 
acre is spoken of as increasing in favor, as it 
stiffens the straw, and assists in filling out the 
ear; and it is claimed by one writer, who had 
used it for many years, that it gives a better 
result with wheat than with oats or barley— 
in which respect, however, other writers do 
not agree with him. 
Mr. Lnwes in 1864, after mentioning the 
widely extended use of salt in the British 
Isles, and expressing doubt as to the reliabil¬ 
ity of some of the experiments with salt on 
wheat that had yielded remarkable results, 
shows that on his own estate it does no good. In 
the discussion which followed the reading of 
his paper, some were disposed to insist upon 
the value of salt, at least on some soils and 
especially on light lands; and an instance was 
given where a salted field of four acres yield¬ 
ed 30 bushels per acre of good grain, while 
On the adjourning unsalted field only 2tl bush¬ 
els of poorer grain wore obtained. The 
straw of the stiffer, salted wheat, that stood 
upright was found to contain eighty-three 
per cent, of silica, while that of the unsalted 
field winch was badly lodged, contained but 
75 per cent, of silica. This may, however, 
have had nothing to do with the strength or 
weakness of the stalk, since experiments have 
shown that stalks with but traces of silica 
may be as strong as those containing the 
usual large proportion. 
Against all these favorable results obtained 
by the application of salt to wheat it would 
be easy to produce au equal number of un¬ 
favorable ones, and probably successes are 
more likely to be made public than failures. 
In Franco, a commission appointed to inquire 
into the subject reported that salt was of no 
use as a fertilizer, at least when used alone. 
Failures to obtain, good results seem to be 
more common on heavy soils than on light 
lands. On the whole, while the evidence of 
really accurate experiments on either kind of 
soil is far from what is needed to establish 
any conclusion in regard to the matter, as 
the case stands there is some evident ground 
for the belief hi the usefulness of salt which 
prevails in some quarters. 
Why may salt be useful on wheat? Cer¬ 
tainly not because either of its constituents, 
chlorine or sodium, is required in the food of 
the plant; that there is no such need, at least 
beyond what may be supplied by any soil 
capable of bearing wheat at nil, has been fully 
established. By many farmers salt is be¬ 
lieved to be specially useful in times of 
drought; but it possesses no property, physical 
or chemical, which enables it to supply water 
to the crops. It may, however, if present in 
sufficient quantity, serve practically the same 
purpose in virtue of its power, when in solu¬ 
tion in the sap of plants, of checking the 
rapidity with which water is transnired 
Average head of Whiter Sandomirka, 
Defiance—Fig. 44S. Fig. 119. 
I am much iu favor of top-dressing wheat 
land, and from experiments extending over 
several years, I find one load of manure made 
fine and spread on the surface, is worth to the 
wheat crop two plowed under. If used in this 
way every half cord of manure will make au 
extra bushel of wl lent—and under favorable cir¬ 
cumstances it will often double this. I believe 
that manure from a shed where it has been al¬ 
lowed to accumulate and retain all the liquid, 
is worth two or three times as much for wheat 
as that from the barnyard, and I am so situa¬ 
ted this year that I can test the matter, as I 
have several loads of manure in a stable where 
I have kept a mare and colt, all Summer. 
I wish every wheat grower who reads the 
Rural would try some experiments with this 
crop. T will suggest, a few : 1st. Try oue dollar’s 
worth of extra work on an acre in the way of 
pulverization, and see if it does licit give 
several dollars' worth extra of wheat; 
2nd., see if three-quarters of a bushel ol' seed 
properly put in will not give a full drop— as 
much as 1 l.j bushel ; 3rd., try a half cord of 
manure well “ fined ” on a tenth of an acre as 
a top-dressing, and see if it does not give from 
one to two bushels more wheat than an nd- 
WHEAT YEARS AGO -SUCCESSES 
NOW. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Tliii t\ -hve years ago Eastern fanners gen¬ 
erally raised then- own breadstuffs. About 
that time weevils began to increase to such 
an extent that many farmers gave up raising 
wheat. W© recollect seeing the screen-box 
nearly full of weevils after cleaning wheat in 
the famiiug-mill. The larvae l'ed upon the 
kernels When in the milk, and if they did not 
entirely destroy the head they made the 
grains shranken and poor. The* final stroke 
to wheat growing, was made by the impor¬ 
tation of the Hessian fly which, like the 
chinch bugs now troubling the Northwest, fed 
upon the stalk near the root, sucking out its 
juices,causing it. to wither and die. Late sow¬ 
ing, aftoi the dies had deposited their eggs on 
other plants, helped to prolong the cultiva¬ 
tion of wheat for a few yea re, but the crop 
was so risky that la nun's general I v gave it up. 
With no wheat to feed upon, these pests be¬ 
came exterminated. For nearly a quarter of 
a century a wheat crop was a rarity. Those 
were days when rye-bread was fashionable. 
Mediterranean Wheat being imported (we 
believe by the Patent Office at Washington) 
was gradually disseminated, and although at 
firet it, was not much bet ter than rye, it grew 
in favor, as it made better flour, and on ac¬ 
count of its coarse chaff was not attacked by 
weevils. It was hardy and pr< iductive and year 
by year improved in quality-. This variety of 
wlieut doing so well, encouraged farmers U> 
begin wheat raising once more, and now 
wheat crops tn the East are common fthti 
DEFIANCE- 
CHIU—FIG. 451. 
the; prize heads. 
(See i>iii?e i>2S.i 
deuce does not justify a very decisive answer 
to the first question. But where salt can be 
had cheaply it. will be worth while to try it on 
moderately light, soils and Spring wheat. An 
application of from three to five bushels per 
acre will cost little, and may yield a fair if 
not a handsome profit. It is riot best to apply 
it with the seed, but either three or four 
wedlts before of after seeding, If only a 
SALT ON WHEAT. 
