COMMON SALT AS A FARM MANURE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1033, 12 August 1879, Page 3 (Supplement)

COMMON SALT AS A FARM MANURE.

(Fftnn thf An.Afrtthr.Aa>>,.) ■ The; recent action of the Kyneton Agricultural Society has given prominence to r.he subject of the nso and value of salt in .form husbandry. Its utility as a ctult-tiu-'tit 1 . v.; II I'h* t fyw aU»ekpwtuts, tilt? wrututtr.eH'S *>f Sfineot the agricultural societies are farmers whose experiences have not ied th-m to attach ns hiirh as a twttw to the use of salt in wheat husbandry as others lta*v don*'. That contradictory notions are held regarding the value of salt cannot be deemed surprijing bv any one who is capable of realising the fact that salt is already pres* nt in greater or less in nearly all soil.-*, and that duter so greatlv in constitution as to render very difficult the task of obtaining correct and definite answers to any onestions which. ri:o farmer Mav put to them. The inutility of raiding salt to land already surcharged therewith should mod no demonstration. There must be a great it,.'p.J Ot land in this country that would not bo benefited by dressings, of salt, besides the land situated near the sea coast. A\\ ry simple analysts of the soits within two or three miles of any of the salt lakes in uie interior would prubably , how ti nt a further addition of salt to those soils wonld by superfluous, and that to the extent, of being injurious. It is quite po.*.db!e ai."> that f.u-ra. rs who have arrived at an opinion adverse to the value arid utility of sale have been putting the question to land which, belli:." ot a retentive cfomcbr, bast not parted with the saline applications already entrusted to it. Dressings of lime oft r< peated, not only ir.il to elicit, increased yields. but _ actually injure certain descriptions of soil utd-vs wt*!l ppf'Ttttl ' witK tiirxiiyiirn ninuucv. I l ' is necessary, therefore, to know before determining to npp'y salt as a manure, whether the hind intended to receive t* has need of such s~.im uiant or not. petuueut. h;'S determined thn. r :<alc in sinal. doses indues a more vigorous habit in many farm crops! ; that in somewhat larger doses it does not augment growth.

sm<i that in p'■j.'.rivf'y targe «W * it ktHs I veuetatum otiirr than pfanta wf a Marine character. F'i'. PritJtty'si experiments i with waN'r containing from one t" twelve j•_ rains i-i ».ttt fvr entice and a halt »>t I waSrr, prow tl>i.«. In those rotation* I v,-h ieh obtained num* than 12 stains the ! |.'rrte I'll' it. immediately. and tin-sir in tin- ! weaker solutions f! fed in trtrn. ex»pf i Hh»h> it; tin' 5..!.;ti..n9 of Hire" crams and I U'oia; in the solution of nnc the ! rh'.rts continued to tire niter the plants in I mipi' r;iir. j v.ri r had Uied. ft was further proved in a. weak solution *''f ?»lf j aeeils vt gt- t.ated which di* d in simple w:\ivr. •• !8.v!t»" says Mr. CuthLert W. Johnson. '' renders earth more capable >'f I ali.'orl'iii'.r the moisture of the atmosphere | - property of tht* first importance ! (especially in Australia}. since tlio3« aoits | which ah'' ori> the inreatrat proportion of ; moisture from the atmosphere are always* r.l.e most valuable to the cultivator." Ot i influence upon the wheat emr> r1 e* same authority says :—"Salt, it should he renumbered. run !'/ >•<" rum t}w >rh>-n? yl„n.l! to tiri'ii" tonyr or ktffrr, M it JiV* "f tin- fiw "t»-tbr T arid {•ring's the wrafcer plants forward. Mr. Sinclair informs tts that "salt appears t<» lessen th« produce nf straw and increase fh' weiicnt of li'ratutif his own experience Mr. Johnson adds :—' F have never been able in my experiments,, nor trt any I have witnessed (« ith salt alone), to observe any increased quantity of straw, even in cases where tiiere was increased produce by means of It. of ?tx bushels* of wheat per acre.' ' fn reft n rice to the amount of dressing and the nature of the sot! on which his experiments were cotwinete«i, ho says : The salt. should be applied some time ibef<i>ro sowiug the seed, ttot less than 10 and riot more than 20 bushels per acre. The fallowing statement, of the result «>f some trials in 18*20, on a light gravelly soil, wilt show how important may be the; result ti> the country at large by its judicious application : Bttsh. lb. No. t. Soil without any manure four years, aave per acre 13 26 >iY>. » Soil manured -with stable

dnng to prevtons crop (potatoes), Cave per acre -t» •>'- No. i'. Soil with five bushels of salt per acre, and no other manttre for four years ®

To this Mr. .Tolmaoti. in his " Essay on Salt.' adds the testimony of "A Plain '.■'ssex Fanner." The soil." says ill*, .fatties Challis, of Pantield, '"that I described to yoa to be rather of a loose holtow description, had a dressing of salt in November, after the wheat was sown, about I-t or If> brtshels per acre. It produced at tin- ra.tr of about six bushels per aero more than that which was not dressed, and it may be stated to he £1 per I ad of 40 bushels better in quality/' This improvement in quality is conspicuously noted in moat of the reports furnished, to Mr. Johnson. In experimental applications. where the quantity of salt was Lrradualty increased m order to determine p.t what point it erased t-.» be beneficial, t.ho plumpness aud quality of the grain v/ere maintained wtn when the_ yield Iv ~;an to show a reduction in quantity. A Mr. Leurand, who experimented on barley, found that its effects gradually advanced up t»» IS bushels per acre, and from thence as gradually diminish jd to 40 bushels, at which point vegetation was stopped. As a sweetener and improver of grass land, salt is highly spoken of by many. Sir. GuLlyns, of iventoii, De voi^

reporting in 1826 on some farms that he had visited, and in which salt had been used, fotiDfl a fine verdant pasturage in what used to be cr'.rse and mshymeadows. Of the same farm, where 10 bushels an acre was the regular yield of wheat the vicM was first raise<i, by a dressing or 10 bushels of .-alt per aero, to 35 bushels, and in the next year, alter being similarly dressed, 140 bags of potatoes were produced per acre. Another dressing of 10 bushels of salt to the same land appears to havn been an ovc-rdoso. for he " had not more than 20 bushels of wheat per .vr.- ; , but tit.; quality was very superior indeed, and tTie root of clover in it very Hue and luxuriant." It is thus possible that the luxuriance of the clover was also n partial cause of the lighter yi-.-id uf vrher.t. Tiie same experimenter ailds "lit every field 1 have salted I find the i (Tvs very much superior to any produced [..•fore the use of salt." A large number of .xperinietits in potato-growing made by Mr. Jo'tinson. and others by the Rev. Kdward Cartwright, show that salt was e.-tpecially usi-ful as a manure for that crop on the soils in question. The soil which unmanured L-ave 120 bushels of potatoes jit-r acre, gave after 20 bushels of salt in September ii!2 busitold of potatoes \ 20 loads of manure gave 219 bushels, 20 toads of manure aud 20 bushels of salt advanced the yield to 234 bushels ; 40 i.usheU of sail* alone Rave 192 i bushels, and tin* Fame quantity of salt with 20 loads of iir-mirj 214 bushels of potatoes per acre. The Rev. Mr. Cartwright, who tiled 30 different manures for potatoes, f-.utid salt superior to all except salt and aor»t; this mixture had a most remarkable effect, both on potatoes and on carrots. The subject of salt and its judicious use will be found by tho.:e of our readers wiio have never entertained it by no means as unimportant as many would have them believe. Salt is as conducive to the health of a great variety of vegetation as to animal fife. The subject will bo early resumed in these columns.