Jess, but will thrive if it be salted; and when a 
calf who is fed solely on milk becomes disordered 
-in stomach, and loathes his food, and does not 
increase in fatness, he will acquire a fine ap- 
petite, and begin rapidly to fatten, by means of 
the simple expedient of giving him small doses 
of salt dissolved in water. An able experimen- 
talist, who gave evidence on the subject before a 
Committee of the House of Commons, currently 
allowed each of his calves one ounce of salt per 
day, and each of his milk-cows four ounces, and 
each of his feeding oxen from four to six ounces. 
Salt is highly advantageous in many ways, to 
sheep. It averts the injurious effects of moist 
and humid situations where they may be re- 
quired to graze. It greatly diminishes the loss 
or risk of depasturing them on such wet reten- 
tive lands as otherwise constitute unsound and 
sickening pastures. It prevents rot, braxy, scab, 
flatulent distension, intestinal worms, and other 
diseases which they are liable to contract from 
either unfavourableness of situation, changeable- 
ness of climate, or succulency of food. It pro- 
motes their general health, and modifies their 
natural timidity, and brings them very closely 
and submissively under the shepherd’s care ; 
and, whether artificially given, or merely aspersed 
on pastures by the sea-spray, it considerably im- 
proves the natural wool. In Spain, it is given 
to the amount of 128 lb. a-year to every 1,000 
sheep; but in many parts of Britain, it might 
be given with advantage to the amount of so 
much as a ton to every 1,000 sheep; and in all 
very bad situations, it ought to be supplied in 
as large a quantity as they choose to consume. 
It should be given in the morning, in order that 
it may counteract the effects of the dew; and it 
may be supplied in ordinary cases twice a-week, 
and in extraordinary ones thrice. ‘Ten or fifteen 
slates or small flat stones for holding it may be 
placed at distances of a few yards from one an- 
other for every 100 sheep; and a small handful 
may be laid on each. If the sheep have a crav- 
. ing for it, they will quickly lick it up; and if it 
_ do not seem to be quite to their present taste, it 
| should immediately be gathered up again, and 
| reserved for future use. 
| ard Braxy. 
See the articles Rot 
Salt, in moderate quantity, promotes the health 
and accelerates the fattening of hogs. It should 
be mixed with their food at the rate of a large 
table-spoonful in 24 hours; and may be advan- 
tageously given in larger quantity, in cases where 
they eat it greedily and are observably affected 
by it as a purgative. When the use of it was 
introduced to the Irish piggeries, hogs were 
found to fatten in little more than half the time 
which was formerly common, and were found 
also to acquire a greater bulk of eventual fat. 
Salt is sometimes given to the hogs of America 
to render them tame, and to prevent them from 
irretrievably wandering or becoming wild in the 
forest. 
SALT. 
129 
All the quadrupeds of North America, both 
domesticated and wild, native and imported, 
have an instinctive passion for salt ; and the ox, 
the bison, the deer, the elk, the bear, and other 
large animals, however strong may be their na- 
tural antipathies, and however distant their pas- 
ture-grounds, repair periodically to the saline 
and briny springs which are interspersed all 
over that great continent; and, in some in- 
stances, they have abraded the briny bot- 
toms and luxuriated in the saline waters and 
licked the salt rock, till great excavations of 8 
or 10 feet in depth have eventually been made, 
and most fantastic shapes of surface have even- 
tually been fashioned. The argali or wild sheep 
who inhabits all the alpine regions of Central 
Asia, and occurs on the highest mountains of 
Greece, Corsica, and Barbary, is very fond of 
salt, and sometimes excavates the earth to a 
considerable depth to obtain it. The Scythian 
antelope, who frequents the open and dreary 
deserts around Mount Caucasus, near the Caspian 
Sea, and in Siberia, feeds largely on salt and on 
the plants which grow near salt springs. The 
chamois, who occurs chiefly on the Alps and the 
Pyrenees, and who feeds on the most delicate 
herbage it can find, is very fond of salt. Gazelles, 
who live in immense herds in the open plains, 
browze upon the saline and pungent herbage. 
And camels drink water which is too salt to be 
used by their human masters. 
The Uses of Salt in the Cultivation of the Soul.— 
Salt, even in small quantities, operates fatally 
on cold-blooded animals, both of the land and of 
fresh water; and is therefore a convenient agent 
for easily clearing away worms, molluscs, newts, 
various insects, and other small animal nuisances. 
The warty newt, though generally very tenacious 
of life, dies with the most violent convulsions 
under a little sprinkling of salt; and snails, 
slugs, earthworms, and some common insects are 
speedily killed by an aspersion or syringing of 
brine or other strongly saline liquid. A sprink- 
ling of salt on lawns, at the rate of ten bushels 
per acre, prevents worm-casts; a good watering 
of gravel-walks and other parts of gardens with 
a strong solution of salt kills worms and grubs 
and larve, and greatly aids to keep the walks 
and grounds in good order; the application of a 
strong solution of salt to various plants and beds 
with a garden syringe destroys some noxious in- 
sects; and the mixing of salt with seed-corn, or 
the aspersion of it as a top-dressing, is one of 
the surest agricultural appliances, for protecting 
‘the young corn-crops of the farm from some of 
their worst subterrane assailants. “In some 
parts of Scotland,” says Sir John Sinclair, “ where 
the oat-crops were frequently destroyed by grubs, 
&c., it has long been a practice to mix salt with 
the seed, in the proportion of 1 to 32, but some- 
times 1 in 16. Every means has been taken to 
ascertain the utility of the practice, and with 
uniform success. Salt destroys vermin in the 
pis Vis 
| 
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