The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-07-04
Salt or No Salt.

!, "A writer in the American Farmer
gives his experience in Sailing cattle as
follows:
az have been engaged in farming for
more tnan twenty years, and for the
first half of the lime followed the in
|structious received in youth, without so
much as daring to question their oxpe-
diency; but about ten or twelve years
ago the idea occurred TO me that the
advantages to be derived from sailing
might be Imaginary, or at least might
be counterbalanced by the expense and
loss of time incurred, and j abruptly
discontinued the practice, and have not
since resumed it, and have no reason to
suppose that shall. ~
About year after leaving off 1 was
visitedlby an old gentleman who had
for many years been farmer, who was
very fond of cattle, and enjoyed the
reputation of being good Judge of
stock. After inspecting my herd, con-
sisting of about sixty, he expressed
great satisfaction, and said that lhad
'the best looking cattle he had seen that
spring. In answer to the query: do
you know the reason of their good con-
ditionr he REPLIED yes, you salt reg
ularly.' l confess it gave me no little
pleasure to be able to assure him they
had not tasted the article for more than
twelve months. AS this old gentleman
is one of the firm believers in salt, hav-
ing both received the theory from his
ancestors and been pretty industrious
also in handing it down, l have not
since heard any illusions from him in
Iregard to the condition of my stock,
but I often receive remarks equally
complimentary from neighbors."
Mr.. Thomas j. Hand, a noted breed
err of Jerseys in West Chester county,
New York, says in the Monthly Bulle-
| tin:
81 have given my cattle no salt for
several years while on grass-but the
pastures have been dressed with mix
ture containing some sulphatc of soda
and none in winter except what they
got In the hay, which had been moder-
lately sailed when put into the barn.
Toward the end of the past winter,
however, they seemed to relish better,
and to cat cleaner their scalded feed OF
| chafled corn fodder, bran and meal,
| when little salt was added as O condi-
ment."
So much for salt for animals. Some
months ago we published statement
taken from western exchange, giving
an account of heavy dressing of salt
applied to moving field through the
blunder of hired man, but which, in
stead of killing all the vegetation OIL the
field, actually appeared 10 be benefit
TO 1t for several years. MIR. Thomas
Proctor, of Wrentham, Mass, recently
related to us bit of his experience in
the use of large quantities of salt upon
an asparagus bed. lie has bed some
ten or fifteen feet square, upon which,
| for the past fourteen years, he has
spread at the rate of two and half tons
of salt per acre every year. Ten years
ago an apple tree sprung up from a seed
carried OIL to the asparagus bed in the
manure, and, as an experiment to test
the effect of salt, il was allowed to
grow, Mr.. Proctor presuning that such
heavy annual applications of salt would
save him any trouble with the tree.
But ten years have passed and now this
is the most thrifty and healthy looking
tree Oh the place.
This experiment docs not, as some
might suppose, prove anything in favor
of the use of salt in an orchard, for
there is probably not another spot on
the farm that has been otherwise SO
well MANFRED as this, during these four
teen years, but it would seem to show
that thirty-fivc tons of salt to the acre
is not enough to kill trees in an apple
orchard New England Farmer.