Agricultural and Pastoral Column.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 659, 28 June 1871, Page 3

Agricultural and Pastoral Column.

♦ SALT AS A MANURE FOR WHEAT. The fact that every form of grain which is used for food contains a considerable amount of salt, or the ingredients that Constitute it, whilst the weeds are nearly destitute of it, is enough to convince us that ground which is destitute of this substance is deficient in one of .essentials for producing the crops that are useful to man. Especially is this the case with wheat, which carefully conducted experiments have shown will not mature in a soil which did not contain salt or its equivalent. This fact has long been known ; and, in truth, salt was probably the first mineral substance that was ever applied to the land with a view of increasing its productiveness. For all this, there is to-day a greater diversity of opinions in regard to the benefits to be derived from the use of salt than there is in relation to the employment of any manure, either organic or inorganic. There' a e some wheat growers who think th t t is quite as necessary to put salt on their soil to make it productive, as it is to sprinkle it on their roast beef in order to make it palatable. On the other hand, there are those who have experimented with it, and who have seen no benefit from its applicaton ; while there are a few who think that it has produced an absolute injury. Asa rule, lands bordering on the sea-board and those that are visited by winds that blow directly from the ocean, contain a sufficient amount of salt, unless it has been removed by continued croppings. The same is true of lands that are contiguous to salt lakes or inland seas. On the other hand, lands that are remote from large bodies of salt water, and which are separated from them by mountain ranges, are ordinarily deficient in salt. Now, it is evident that to apply more salt to land that already contains it in excess would be a disadvantage ; and some experimenters, who thus used it, being ignorant of how much the land contained already, may have given their testimony against the use of salt altogether. Ground, then, should be tested for salt, and its needs ascertained .before it is applied or else only a small portion of a wheat field should be selected for the purpose of making an experiment with a view of getting results that may be of use in after years. If the former course be adopted, and the farmer is unacquainted with the details of chemical analysis, the presence of salt may be ascertained by the following simple experiment: — Collect from the fields a cupful of dry soil, and stir it for a considerable time in two quarts of clean rain water. Filter it now through porous paper placed in a funnel, the same as druggists do their liquid preparations; or carefully pour off the water after all the impurities have settled. Fill a tumbler with the liquid, and pour into it a little dissolved nitiate of silver, which will throw down, if salt be presnt, a white precipitate, which will be more or less plentiful, according to the abundance of the salt in the soil. The following are the good results that ordinarily follow the application of salt to grain fields that are deficient in it: plumper, firmer, and more numerous berries ; a more tenacious stalk, which is consequently less liable to lodge; the destruction of several kinds of insects that are injurious to the young plant, hastening the maturity of the crop ; an l the prevention to a considerable degree of the liability to rust. Now all these are desirable ends to accomplish ; we trust that farmers will risk a little in making an experiment, even if on a small scale. It is the usual practice to scatter the salt broadcast, at the rate of four or five bushels to the acre, after the grain has been put in. Many farmers who have used it in this manner have given their testimony that their crop of wheat has been greatly increased, and tlje crop of weeds, bugs, and worms correspondingly diminished. If this is so, it is evident that salt performs two important offices, while ordinary manure performs but one.—Prairie Furmer. Draining of wet lands and marshes adds to their value, by making them produce more and better crops —by producing them earlier —and by improving the health of neighbourhoods.