| Show COMMON SALT ITS agricultural USE AND EFFE EFFECT there is no doubt but that common salt has been beer long used as a manure for as early as 1748 8 a wr writer illier bilier named brownrigg published a boo book in w which ch he be contended that the whole k kingdom in dc orn great britain might be enriched by t the a application wll wil RAi cation catlon ot of common bau sau to the boll soil an and I 1 dl since big bis time this use at 0 sat has baa been more common and arid much more easland la ni d t than an I 1 in n our own country with ua us the use ot of it has been much retarded for want of 0 a knowledge of its action and effects in order to guide us to a more proper and skillful use of it it is certain that in many instances of the application of salt thode those who apply it are disappointed with the re result which in al all ali cases I 1 think may be attributed to a want of knowledge of its effect sand band may be accounted for fon byone by one or more of the following reasons salt furnishes to the soil but two constituents namely soda and chlorine and hence it can rot tot like barnyard manure be appleb ap pied pled ad libi tum turn for unlike the latter it does not furnish all the saline parts needed by the crop and hence be cause the boll soil already contains sufficient of these two constituents a second application of salt may nay produce little litt e or no immediate effect and digap 1 ensues again some plants are more bene fitted by the application oe at balt salt than others ot hiers fiers and hence by not understanding the wants ot of the crop the application may not as far as that particular crop is conc concern concerned ernd fd produce any essect effect or if it does it may be an unfavorable one failures are many times caused by supposing that inasmuch as one application was good for a propof corn another will benefit the succeeding one of oats but if the first application was a liberal one it will not because the soil already contains enough of the constituents of salt needed for that crois crop but booner sooner or later the second application wll wil bet ber be gin to show itself i 0 e of the ste main benefits which I 1 have derived from the use of salt as a manure has been when I 1 have turned under a heavy crop of clover or rye for wheat I 1 find it has a tendency to stiffen the r straw and prevent its falling down as is often the case when green Js ja practiced I 1 usually sow it b broadcast road cast at the rate of one sack thre three e bushels to two acres the most suitable time which I 1 can find is either just before the last harrowing or before the drill if the seed is put in in that manner it is very easy for those who have been used to broadcast sowing to arrive at the proper amount I 1 found from experiment that salt has the effect of in creasing the weight of the grain in one case i of two lands bide side by bide side one of 0 which in addition to a good coat 0 of manure was top dressed with salt at the rate ef one and one half bushels to the acre and the other had bad nothing but the manure the wheat upon these two lands and in fact upon lupon the whole was heavy particularly botn eon the straw ethaw on the salted land it stood up well and the straw was bright while hiie hile on the remainder of the field it was all more or less lodged and down the salted land produced wheat weighing three pounds more per bushel than that on the re jainder lna ina inder of the field during the winter the wheat on the land to walh h the salt was applied was of a deeper green and from the time the wheat vias was up until harvest any novice could select the one land from the remainder of the field I 1 have before me accurate accounts of some experiments made with salt and think ing some of the results might be of interest to some 0 of the many readers of the telegraph I 1 will give a few of them in one experiment on grass for bay it was found that the application of six bushels of 0 f salt balt a a pr p r acre increased the yield exactly one ton of hay per acre but that one hundred pounds of the te fresh cut grass from the salted portion only made fifty gitty two pounds of hay bay ehile the bame game amount from the other part of the field made fafty fifty five or in other words a ton of hay for t three dollars in another case when sown for wheat at the rate rater of one on hundred and sixty pounds per acre it increased the crop seven bushels per acre makiri the additional wheat cost about twelve cents per bushel in a third experiment when applied to oats at the rate of one hundred and twelve pounds per acre it decreased the crop as compared with a plot exactly similar in soil and size at the rate of bix six bushels of grain per acrey acre and the straw at the rate of three hundred pounds po und a per acre making it harsh and stiff tife a A all ail the experiment experiments a which have been tried have tended to prove that salt is not favorable to the increase of the oats crop and if applied to the corn at the rate raie of more than I 1 one or one and one half bushels it will decrease creace the succeeding crop of oat cat but they tend to prove that it maybe may be applied to wheat in n a any ary y amount from one to 10 twelve bushels w without t b ut any ny danger of a bad resu result at in england where salt is more usel use uye as a manure it is not unusual to apply it at the rate of ten or of twelve bushels per acre inasmuch hs as it hag bag been found that while it is beneficial to bome some soils and not to others it would be well tor for those commencing the use of it to try it upon a small scale at first in order to test the matter and thus perhaps avoid both loss 1085 ald and trouble I 1 have heard beard practical farmers object to the use of salt because it was too expensive but it Is the business of the farmer to expend bib bia capital so that it will produce the largest amount of sa leable produce at the smallest cost and if twelve centa cents worth of saltwell sal salt will twill produce one bushel of wheat then I 1 think we need look no fart farther her ber that it will is not an established fact but in one case at leat least it has done it and hag has been a profitable investment for thy friend in the VALLEY great valley ad mo |
