The southerner., 1852-04-10

plants IN simple water were dead. (Nat
Phllos., vol. l., p. 1867 That vegetable
substances are capable of being stimula-
ted by chemical solutions, is we'll known.
A solution of clorine in water will make
certain seeds vegetate which would 9TH
erwise rot in the earth; and mixture
of camphor, &C., has been found to be
very beneficial in restoring vitality iu
cuttings of various exotics too long de-
layed in their passage.
Salt, it should be remembered, rare
y causes the soheat plant to gro,c loryer
or taller, but it fills up the ear better,
and brings the weaker plants forward
Mr.. Sinclair says that "s.lt appears to
lessen the produce of straw, and increase
the weight of grain" [ have never
been able, says Johnson, in my expert
ments, nor in any | have witnessed,
with salt alone,) to observe any in
creased quantity of straw even in cases
where there was an increased produce,
by means of salt, Of six bushels of wheat
per acre. The salt should be applied
some time before sowing the seed, not
less than ten, and not more than twenty
bushels per acre. In my own expert
ments upon a light gravelly soil, at
Great Lothian, in Essex, the use of this
quantity of salt per acre Gin 1s499 pro-
duced an increase Of five and a half
bushels per acre.
The testimony of an Essex farmer
corroborates these results. "The SOIL"
says Mr.. James Challis, of Penfeld,
which is of rather loose hollow de-
scription, had dressing of salt in No
vember, after the wheats was sown, "a
bout fourteen or fifteen bushels per acre:
it produced at the rate of six bushels
per acre more than that which was not
dressed, and it is better in quality"
1t is custom in most counties of Eng
land, to apply salt and water as steep
to prevent the ravages Of the diseases in
wheat called the smut; the value Of this
is known to almost every farmer. Recent
experiments have suggested that it
may even be Of use, when employed in
larger quantities as preventive of dis
ease to which the cultivated grasses are
exposed. The experiments of the Rev.
b. Cartwright strongly evidence that
when salt and water are sprinkled with
a brush upon diseased plants, it effects a
complete cure, even in apparently the
most desperate cases. "The proportion
one pound to gallon of water, laid on
with a plasterer's brush, the operator
making his cast as when sowing corn,
is instant death to the fungus" The
time and expense are trifing. 1t ap-
peared, in the course Of some inquiries
made by the Board of Agriculture, that
a Cornish farmer, Mr. Sickler, and also
the Rev. r. Hoblin, were accustomed
to employ refuse salt as manure, IN
that their crops scere never inflicted aciM
a rust or Jltyht.
As q manure for grass land, n,eadoacs,
d'c., salt has been used in all parts OF
England, with varying success. 1t al
ways, however, sweetens the herbage.
1t has been employed at the rate of 6 to
16 bushels per acre, and where the .pri'
mary object has been the destruction ot
the old turf, even 80 to 40 bushels have
been successfully employed on the same
extent of land. 1t has the effect O
completely preventing worm-casts OF
lawns, &c.
In letter from Mr.. Collyns, of Ken
ton, Devonshire, he says: "One of my
neig bors writes me, Gin using salt as ;
manure on grass land, 1 have found th'
salt portions not to be affected by seyer'
frosty nights, when every blade of gras
on the unsalted portions has been in
frozen state. l observe, too, that it i
; destructive to every kind of grub-worm
and I am convinced, where it has bee
used with judgment, that it has nc
, failed" Another intelligent neigl
5 bor," continues Mr.. Collyns, t'whos
= farm is almost entirely light blac
: sand, writes, 4 have found salt to al
swer my most sanguine expectations ft
+ barley, oats, potatoes and turnips, bot
n as to the increased quantity and impro
S ed quality of the crops, of which | ca
|. now give ocular demonstration: my b'
l. ley and oats which used to yield me 0
IS ly Is to 90 bushels per acre, new yie
% from 40 to so.
81 My wheat is certainly much iinprov
= in quality, but I expected more in qua
J. tity. I have 35 bushels Of wheat frt
,e an acre dressed with 10 bushels of sa
rs and from the same field last year, af
h the same quantity of salt, 40 bags
h potatoes per acre. This year aga
w. dressed with 10 bushels of salt, I hs
a. not more than 20 bushels of wheat ,