BwAU BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
argument against the use of Stassfurt salts, that chlorides (whether 
of potassium or sodium) are liable to injure the quality of beet- 
juice, the combustibility of tobacco leaves, and the mealiness of 
potatoes. As regards tobacco, the same conclusion has been 
reached in this country ; but with respect to potatoes the accounts 
in our agricultural papers are somewhat conflicting, and the gen- 
eral inference seems to be that, while there is undoubtedly a con- 
siderable risk of harm, the quality of the tubers is not so univer- 
sally liable to suffer from this cause as has sometimes been supposed. 
In so far as regards mere: increase of crop, it is in evidence that 
the potato has shown itself to be less sensitive to harm from mod- 
erate doses of chloride of potassium, and better able to profit by 
this fertilizer, than several other plants. As bearing on the amount 
of injury which extreme doses of chlorides may inflict, I cite the 
following paragraph from Pallas’s ‘‘ Travels in Siberia.” * Writ- 
ing in 1769, of the environs of Gourief and the variety of saline 
plants found there, he says: ‘‘ It would hardly be believed that 
vegetables could succeed in such a soil. The commandant has a 
garden in which grow melons, cucumbers, beets, radishes, cab- 
bages, kohl-rabi, and parsley. These plants succeed very well. 
But tobacco, celery, cauliflower, potatoes, and water-melons do 
not succeed. They have tried planting selected seeds of the water- 
melon, but the fruit obtained is very small and of very poor 
quality. This result is the more surprising, since the earth is 
moist and other melons and calabashes flourish marvellously.” 
As would naturally be expected, nitrate of potash has approved 
itself a powerful fertilizer in many instances. No doubt it would 
be widely used in agriculture but for the high price which it com- 
mands on account of the uses for which it is indispensably neces- 
sary in the arts.. In this regard it would be hard to find a truer or 
more sensible statement than the following which was written 
nearly half a century ago by Mr. Phinney,+ of Lexington, one of 
the most distinguished farmers of his day: ‘* My experiments with 
saltpetre as a manure have satisfied me of the inexpediency of 
using it for that purpose. In the spring of 1839 I purchased 
400 lbs. for which I paid $8 per ewt. I tried it upon wheat, rye, 
and grass. 50 lbs. to the acre on wheat and rye had no perceptible 
effect, and on grass but very little. 100 lbs. to the acre occasioned 
a very considerable increase of straw and grain, both in wheat.and 
* Pallas, ‘‘ Voyages,” 2. 361. 
+ Colman’s ‘‘ Fourth Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts,” p. 334. 
