THE VALUE OF SALT.

Patea Mail, 16 August 1881, Page 3

THE VALUE OF SALT.

In the place of investing money in guano or bonodnst, it would sometimes pay a settler better to obtain a certain quantity of salt; and the coarsest is by far the best. Salt is especially valuable on land naturally dry and sandy, upon which bonedust would be almost wasted. For trees and vegetables raised on such soil, salt occasionally works wonders, as the following from the Chicago Times will show ;—“ I will give you a sketch of my experience with the use of salt in the garden and orchard. Young frnils can be made to grow and do well in places where old trees have died, by sowing a pint of suit on the earth where they are to stand. After trees are set I continue to sow a pint of salt around each tree every year. I set twenty-six in sandy soil for each one of seven years and only succeeded in getting one to live, and that only produced twigs a few inches long in nine years. Last spring I sowed a pint of salt around it, and limbs grew from three to three and a half feet long. In the spring of 1877 I set out twenty-five trees, putting a pint of salt in the dirt used for filling, and then sowed a pint more on the surface after each tree w T as set. All grew os if they never had been taken from the nursery. Last spring I set thirty more, treating them in the same way, and they have grown very finely. The salt keeps away insects that injure the roots and renders the soil more capable of sustaining plant growth. In 1877 my wife had a garden forty feet square. It was necessary to water it nearly every day, and still the flowers and plants wore very inferior in all respects. In 1878 I put half a barrel of brine and half a bushel of salt in the ground, and then turned it under. The consequence was that the plants were of extraordinary large size, and the flowers of great beauty. It was not necessary to water tbe garden, which was greatly admired by all who saw it. The flowers were so large that they appeared to.be of different varieties from those grown on land that was not sailed. I had some potatoes grown from seed that had willed down as soon as the weather became very hot. I applied salt to the surface of the soil till it was white. The vines took a vigorous start, grow to the length of three feet, blossomed and produced tubers from the size ot a hen’s eggs, to that of goose eggs. My soil is chiefly sandy, but I believe that salt is highly beneficial to clay or to common prairie land.”