The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-03-25
SALT AS A FERTILIZER.

What Joseph HARRIS has To Say amour
1t In The American Agrieuiturist.
According to the modern notion of "a
complete manure" neither salt, plaster
nor lime is a manure at all, A "eom-
plete manure" we are told, is anything
that contains nitrogen, phosphorio acid
and potash, But salt, plaster and lime
contain neither nitrogen, phosphoric acid
nor potash, And therefore they are
not manures. either complete or incom-
plete, If we accept this notion there
is nothing more TO DO said. But while
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash
are unquestionably the three ingredi-
ents of plant food most generally def
cient in our soils, it is very certain that
they are not the only substances that
will increase the growth Of our crops
Lime renders the nitrogen and potash Of
our soils more available; plaster makes
clover and corn grow more luxuriantly,
and have seen decided benefit from
an application of salt on mangel wurzel,
barley and wheat
John Johnston. 1.-THE father of under
draining" and one Of the most success
full farmers of his time, used salt on his
winter wheat for many years. He sowed
about four bushels per acre broadcast on
the land at the time of sowing the wheat
in the fall. He once showed me large
field of wheat that was also sown with
salt as above, except a narrow strip run.
ming across the field. The effect was
most marked and beneficial. The wheat
ON each side this unsalted strip was
taller, the straw brighter and sitter,
and the heads better filled. why did
the salt do so much good" Frankly, l
do not know. There are hundreds of in
stances where salt has had a decided eff
| feet; there are more instances where its
application has done no good. "Agri-
cultural salt" has been offered our farm
ers at very low prices, and many have
tried it; but for some reason or other its
use does not extend. do use it," No.
do my neighbors use it, No, GER
tainly not, as a rule. Where one farmer
uses salt hundred continue to use, year
after year, superphosphate,
| Hundreds of experiments might be
cited where salt has proved beneficial.
Why it is sometimes valuable and often
times not, we do not know. We do not
understand its action. We are nearly as
ignorant in regard to the action of plas-
ter. For some years we have supposed
that salt and plaster checked the evapo-
ration of water through the leaves of
the plants, and thus lessened the injuri-
Gus effect of drought. Some recent ex-
periments would indicate that plaster
was favorable to the growth of the ba-
cillus or nitrate yeast" that converts
organic nitrogen and ammonia into nj
trates and thus rendered the nitrogen
Immediately available for the growth OF
our cultivated crops. Possibly salt acts
in the same way. All that we know al
present is that salt is frequently very
beneficial on some soils and for some
crops. One of my neighbors who grows
cabbage, onions, carrots, ETC., on low
mucky land depends almost entirely or
salt as fertilizer He frequently raises
fine crop of late cabbage with salt
alone On similar land of my own il
the same swamp find superphosphate
and little nitrate of soda highly bene
fetal So that it would seem probable
that salt develops plant food from the
soil. And it is question for considera
ton and experiment whether it is cheap
er to furnish the phosphoric acid ant
nitrates in the form of manures or fer
tilizers, or whether we should use salt
lime or plaster to develop them from thu
soil. If given amount of money il
superphosphate and nitrate of soda vii
produce as large crops as the sam'
amount of money expended in salt, linn,
or plaster. then Of course the fertilizer
are to be preferred because they furnish
the plant food rather than develop i
from the store of organic matter in tn
soil.