358 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
tice where heavy dressings of common salt that had been applied 
as a fertilizer distinguished themselves by rendering sticky soils 
mellow and crumbly.* Professor Atwater,+ from the results of 
numerous farm-experiments with fertilizers, that were made under 
his guidance, was persuaded that on heavy clays that naturally 
contain a good deal of potash the good effects produced by chlo- 
ride of potassium must have been due in good part to its indirect 
action in loosening or otherwise improving the mechanical condi- 
tion of the soil by coagulating the clay or by rendering other kinds 
of plant-food available. 
It would be an interesting point to determine by observation and 
experiment in field-practice how much the peculiar binding powers 
of common salt (or of chloride of calcium) and of the alkalies may 
hinder or help one the other; and it would seem to be not wholly 
improbable that the Dutch chemists and farmers may have failed 
to distinguish between two kinds of binding effects: the one pri- 
mary, 7. e. due directly to common salt; the other secondary, 
i.e. caused by a product (carbonate of soda) which has resulted 
from the decomposition of the salt. It is of interest to note that 
Voelcker,{ in describing his experiments with common salt (and 
Stassfurt salts) on mangolds (and other crops), relates that the 
salt was often found to be useful on light, sandy soils, but not on 
clays. It may be noted also that, on light land, salt tended to de- 
velop the leaves of the beet plants. 
Naturally enough it is extremely difficult, in the case of chemi- 
cals like common salt or chloride of potassium, to determine just 
what their mode of action is in any given instance ; for they may, 
and undoubtedly do, act in several different ways according to cir- 
cumstances. How shall we explain, for example, the physiological 
effect noted by Nessler,§ who observed not only that tobacco ma- 
nured with salt was tougher and more pliant than that from soil 
which got no salt, but that the quality of hemp was improved in 
that the fibre could be spun with less waste than usual. As the 
spinners said, the salt-grown hemp was ‘‘ greasier.” Or what shall 
* See, for example, ‘‘ Hoffmann’s Jahresbericht der Agrikultur-Chemie,” 
1861-1862, 4, pp. 269, 270. 
+ ‘Report of Work of the Agricultural Experiment-Station,” Middletown, 
Conn., 1877-1878, pp. 91, 106. 
t Compare, for example, ‘‘ Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society,” “ 
1864, 25. 240, 389. f 
§ ‘‘ Jahresbericht der Agrikultur-Chemie,” 1873-74, 16-17. (3d part) p. 79. 
