LAND AND SALT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1288, 5 November 1896, Page 5

LAND AND SALT.

In the application of salt as a topdressing for pasture land where sheep are kept considerable caro is required. Several cases, says “ Dinedor,” in Farm and Field, have come to our knowledge of injury. On one occasion a farmer hotvily top-dressed a meadow m which the grass was of a very inferior kind, the quantity he applied being about G cwt to the acre. In the next summer it is stock cleared the keep down, which had never been done before, but a sequel to it was that there was a very poor crop of lambs, many of which died and many of the ewes aborted. The farmer came to the conclusion after careful inquiries that this was entirely due to the heavy dressing of sal b.

In salting pastures care should be taken against placing in-lamb ewes upon them. It is with salt as with other matters. It is useful and beneficial if properly applied, but detrimental and dangerous if under other circumstances. Salt may be used on rough pasture, mixed in composite heaps, and in many ways which are known to the experienced, and may be learned from the pamphlets issued by salt makers and merchants; but it must be employed with intelligence. The following observations from a publication of the Salt Union, Limited, may be useful reproduced : “ Salt should not, as a rule, be applied with the seed. A little salt is sometimes mixed with carrot seed, an exception to the above rule. It is not

advisable to apply salt to very cold, wet clay land. Salt, nevertheless, assists in the disintegration of clays, if applied before ploughing. One of the principal reasons given by scientific authorities for the application of salt more or less all the soils is based upon the fact that chloride of sodium, like other soluble salts, is constantly being carried off the land into the rivers and seas. If the soil is to be kept fertile, this unavoidable loss must be replaced. “ Bearing in mind the above-men-tioned fact, it will be seen that those who think the land near sea coasts does not require salt are in error, as the small amount of salt carried a little distance by sea breezes bears no comparison with the quantity carried away. As a guide to those who wish to make experiments, we may say that a fair average quantity is two ounces of salt per square yard. A rough calculation is one handful to each square yard. Salt for a long time has been a stock ingredient of many high-priced fertilisers, and in this way fanners have paid double and treble the market prices for it. “ Salt undoubtedly assists other manures, and some of them cannot act without it j but as a matter of economy it is best to buy the salt separately, and mix it afterwards if desired. Two cwt of salt to one cwt of nitrate of soda, one cwt of salt to two cwt of litne, equal quantities of salt with basic slag, guano, and superphosphates, are usual proportions. Suit encourages the growth of mushrooms, and is largely used in some districts for that purpose ; in fact the liberal use of salt in old pastures where horses are kept produces so large a crop of mushrooms that a new and most profitable agricultural industry is opened up.”