— 
} 
132 
George Sinclair, with his accustomed scientific 
accuracy, and in a variety of different ways, 
made some important experiments, at Woburn, 
on the use of salt, by itself and in compost and 
in different quantities, as a manure for Talavera 
wheat, employing plots of sandy soil each 36 feet 
square, drilling in the seed on the 5th of Novem- 
ber, and reaping the crops on the 2d of August ; 
SALT. 
and the following tabular report of his experi- 
ments, though not at all to be taken as an index 
of what may be expected on larger areas, and 
under ordinary circumstance of field cultivation, 
is instructive both by showing the comparative 
results which Mr. Sinclair obtained, and by stat- 
ing and suggesting a great diversity of methods 
in the application of the manure. 
Kind of Manure and Mode of applying it. 
Spit manure applied previous to sowing the seed - - 
Salt and spit manure dug in sait mixed with seed - 
Salt mixed with soil four inches deep before sowing : 
Salt ditto ditto ditto - 
Salt sown with seed - - - 
Salt combined with manure, dug i in four inches deep 
Salt and manure: salt sown with seed, manure dugin - 
Salt and manure: salt applied to the surface - = 
Salt simply applied to the surface - - cheers 
Salt and manure: salt applied to the sur face - - 
Salt simply applied to the surface - - 
Salt and lime mixed, and applied with the seed - = 
Salt and lime mixed, and applied before sowing - - 
Salt and lime mixed, and applied on the surface - 
Lime applied with the seed ~ St = - 
Lime applied to the surface - - 
Salt, lime, and dung mixed, and applied a asmanure - = 
Long dung duginasmanure - = - - 
Saltand long dung mixed, and applied as smanure - - 
Lime and long dung mixed, and applied as manure - 
Salt and lone dung mixed, andapplied asmanure - - 
Oil cake mixed, and applied with the seed - - - 
Oil cake applied ascommonmanure -~— - - - - 
Oil cake and lime applied as common manure - - 
Salt and oil cake mixed, and sown with the seed - - 
Salt and oilcake mixed, and appliedasmanure - - 
Salt, oil cake, and manure, appliedas manure - 
Salt, oil cake, and manure: the salt and oil cake sown with the 
seed, manure previouslydugin - - — - -  - 
Salt, oil cake, and lime, applied asmanure - - - - 
Salt, oil cake, and lime, sown with theseed_ - - - 
Salt, oil cake, and lime, applied to the surface - - - 
Salt. applied to the soil in preceding spring - - - 
Salt applied to the soil in preceding spring =) C= - 
Salt acts well in many kinds of composts. 
Though highly antiseptic when somewhat freely 
applied to the surface of compact and homo- 
geneous dead substances, yet it accelerates de- 
composition and multiplies the affinities for re- 
combination when mixed in small quantity with 
incompact and heterogeneous dead substances; 
and hence it may be advantageously strewn over 
masses of farm-yard manure when they are car- 
ried to the field, or sprinkled, from time to time, 
upon accumulating heaps of the refuse of gar- 
dens and coarse vegetable matters and animal 
remains. A mixture of foul salt with grass roots 
and other rubbish harrowed off the land was 
long ago tried as an ingredient in compound 
manures, for a crop of barley and grass seeds, 
and found to exceed the most sanguine expecta- 
tions. A mixture of salt with earths and shell 
sand, spread on turnip fallows, tells well both on 
the green crop and on the succeeding grain crop ; 
and either this or any other application of salt, 
is supposed to increase the vigour and hardiness 
of turnips, and to enable them to withstand bet- 
ter the effects of frost. A compost of salt and 
lime, in the proportion of one measure of the 
salt and two measures of the lime, when properly 
| Manures, omitting Fractions. 
Quantity per acre. Bape 
Dung Salt | Lime Oil Weight 
in in in |Cake in| Bus. of a 
Tons Bus. Bus. Bus, Bus. a 
lbs. 
i 45 Bane Fe) ean at re is 49 573 
= 45 44 So ¢ Baa 75 58 
ei Sas 44 - ‘- Ses 91 59 
3 itr x SNe Bialie 77 59 
Z afi Para Ne eA ean 73 57 
“ 45 Balam nls eal ee 75 523 
. 45 Bie he eee | Cee 95 59 
: 45 By Sa a os 82 573 
2 : Esai abla en Us 60 55 
- | 45 QA tes | ee leas AES 534 
os So 44 Sos SS 77 56 
see he 53 2 1 | eee | GG 563 
“ cA 5s TE se 68 563 
pe ee ee 53 120n (ree 64 56 
é errs e i) |} oS 53 523 
S sii = 120 So 57 54% 
2 90 53 TA | Geye 62 563 
- 41 - - - - - - 71 56% t 
4 41 22 i a 71 Ao 
- 41 =o 120 = ie 54 57 
= 41 44. Seer ns sie rer oe 56 
Saeko os Vata ali x 48 56 
i ey stl ere i 73 60 
gh ioe 120 5s 744 563 
if ae Be dliee ae 52 60L 2 
Ba SHI aps a 2 743 58 
90 il be cide in SE io bt Aadpy BE 
> 90 5s 120 5s 553 552 
= als 5s 120 5s 71 BIL 
aR eet 52 120 5s 55k 554 
Z Bai 53 = 5s 66 58 
TV al yest (vie 62 Be x No aes 442 | 573 
2 Be Yoes 31 S = 263 475 
prepared and judiciously applied, is an excellent 
manure for many purposes. ‘The mixture of the 
salt and the lime should be made by simply in- 
termingling them in a heap, and should either 
be covered with sods or kept in a shady place, 
and should be allowed to lie undisturbed dur- 
ing two or three months; and, in this way, 
it passes through a gradual decomposition, and 
resolves itself into muriate of lime and soda, and 
acquires an alkaline crust over its whole surface, 
and becomes one of the most powerful substances 
known for absorbing moisture from the atmo- 
sphere into the soil. Cuthbert W. Johnson, Hsq., 
recommends it to be applied at the rate of from 
35 to 60 bushels per acre, either sown out of a 
seed- basket, or mixed with earth and spread 
in the usual way; and he says respecting it, “ It 
promises now, through the successful example of 
Mr. Bennett, and Sir C. Burrell, to be very gen- 
erally adopted. It is difficult to account for the 
neglect of this manure, on any other ground than 
the difficulties which were so long thrown in the 
farmer’s way, by the long continued tax upon 
salt. That it is not a novel plan for enriching 
the land is quite certain. Glauber, a celebrated 
German chemist, one of the last of the alchemists, 
