THE VALUE OF SALT TO FARMERS.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 3, Issue 143, 28 August 1895, Page 4

THE VALUE OF SALT TO FARMERS.

The value of salt as a fertilizer is not genera'ly realised. It is a common, but doubtless a mistaken belief, that any substance that may exist in the soil in any form is not required for the feeding of plants beyond what, the soil actually contains. Thus it is asserted that as almost every soil has some lime in it, in some form, and .soda as well, neither lime nor soda is a necessary plant food to be applied to the crops. But salt is not soda, nor soda salt. It requires the chlorine that is in combination with the soda to make the salt, and every plant has soda and chlorine, as salt, in its ashes. It would seem, then, that salt should be of some value as a fertiliser, and it has been shown by the effect of a liberal application of it that it is of value, and increases the yield of almost every er.'p to which it is applied. It has doubled the yield of grass and clover; it is scarcely ever without good effect on the small grains ; it is really indi<peusable to all roots, including cabbage in the list of rhese, and it has had a conspicuously good result in orchards. Eive or six hundred pounds per acre is generally used with good effect, and it is rare indeed to meet with a case to the contrary.