which may afford a hint to the protectors of this and others of the palms in our hot-houses to assist them by the application of salt. The fact which has often been noticed, and satisfactorily explained, that brocoli and other members of the brassica tribe growing on soils manured with salt, endure the rigour of winters which destroy others growing upon unsalted ground, may also serve as a memento to the curator of every hot-house to try its protecting powers upon some of the tenderest of its tenants. The benefit of salt when applied to flowers is unequivocal; even those separated from their parent stems and placed in vases are preserved longer in vigour by having a few grains of this saline stimulant dissolved in the water. The late T. Andrews, Esq. of Coggeshall informed me, that tulip seedlings sooner acquired their perfect colour if the beds were manured with salt, than those in similar beds untreated with this manure. The benefit arising to bulbous-rooted flowers, &c. from its use is farther confirmed by the following communication lately received by my brother from Mr. Hogg, florist, Paddington:-"From the few experiments that I have tried with salt as a manure, I am fully prepared to bear testimony to its usefulness. I am satisfied that no hyacinths will grow well at a distance from the sea without it. I am also of opinion that the numerous bulbous tribe of Amaryllises, especially those from the Cape of Good Hope, Ixias, Alliums, &c. &c. should have either salt or sea sand in the mould used for them. I invariably use salt as an ingredient in my compost for carnations, and I believe I may say, without boasting, that few excel me in blooming that flower." In concluding these irregular observations, the chief object of which is to call the attention of gardeners more generally to the subject, I shall only pause a minute to deprecate illjudged experiments and hasty conclusions. Let the same patient resolution in the pursuit and desire for the illustration of truth be found as is exhibited in the table of experiments by Mr. G. Sinclair, given in my brother's essay; let them not conclude, with a friend of mine, that salt is destructive to plants, at all events, to potatoes, because not a single set vegetated in those rows where he filled the holes made by the dibble with salt after putting in the potatoe! but let them at least be guided by the directions of those who have had some experience in the research; let them investigate without prejudice, and they may perhaps agree in repeating the enthusiastic declaration of Mr. Cline, of medical celebrity, "salt is of as much benefit to land as to the human constitution." If you consider the above would at all tend to call the attention of gardeners to that which I am convinced is one of their best friends, if inserted in your Magazine, (the best demonstration of my approval of which is my constant perusal of it as it appears,) I shall be very happy at a future period to communicate such facts, &c. as may occur. Great Totham, Essex, I am, Sir, &c. G. W. JOHNSON. The following is a subsequent communication from Mr. Johnson on the same subject. We are sorry that he should imagine, that because we consider salt as a stimulus, we are therefore unfavourable to its use in agriculture or gardening. If this conclusion were to be drawn, we should be also unfavourable to the use of lime, which, in common with agricultural chemists, we consider more as a stimulant, and decomposer of food already in the soil than as food itself. We are not, however, on that account, the less an advocate for the employment both of salt and lime. See Encyc. of Agr. § 2213. Cond. et seq. Sir, 7 I REGRET most sincerely to find, by the observation contained in p. 402. of the last number of the Gardener's Magazine, that you are far from being favourably inclined to the employment of salt as a fertilizing medium. I am almost inclined to agree with you in considering salt as beneficial to plants by stimulating them, and other proximate effects, rather than as being their actual food, but there are some considerations and facts, which being opposed to it, I am unable satisfactorily to explain away. Water, wherever it is obtained, is always found to contain common salt, even rain and distilled water are not perfectly free from it; such waters as are derived from near the surface of the earth always contain the most. Now, as such water is one of the chief sources of nourishment to plants, are we not justified in concluding that the salt is taken up with the water?-At all events, many upland plants, as the Gratiola officinalis, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, &c. (Thomson's Chem. ed. 6th. v. 4. p. 244, 245.), contain it in a very notable proportion. Mr. G. Sinclair states from experiment, that wheat grown upon a soil salted, indicated, on analysis, nearly double the quantity of alkaline muriate than similar grain grown upon a similar soil that had had no salt applied. We must not either imagine, that plants absorb the salt of necessity, it being presented to them in solution, for Saussure has demonstrated by experiment that plants have the power of selecting salts from their solutions; acetate of lime and common salt being dissolved in the same water, some plants of Polygonum Persicaria, &c., absorbed a considerable portion of the latter salt, but rejected the former entirely. (Saussure's Recherches, p. 247—61.) I never tested with nitrate of silver the infusion of any plant that did not indicate the presence of an alkaline muriate. Such being the fact, I am not aware of any reason that should forbid us considering common salt as an essential constituent of some plants; if we allow that it is such of the blood and other parts of animals, and if it is an essential constituent, they must derive it from their food. Sir H. Davy, in his Agricultural Chemistry, (2d ed. p. 337,) says, "when common salt acts as a manure, it is probably by entering into the composition of the plant in the same manner as gypsum, phosphate of lime, &c." We could hardly attribute the benefits arising from these to plants to their stimulating qualities. I offer these observations, Sir, not in the belief that they are new to you, but in the hope that they may induce you to a more full examination of the evidence for and against the employment of salt as a manure, an examination which I am sure could not fail of securing you to it as a friend, which I am the more anxious you should, being an advocate for it myself, as you stand in your editorial capacity as one of the beacons of horticulture. I am, Sir, yours, &c., G. W. JOHNSON. "We shall not argue with Mr. Johnson or Mr. Collyns, (Gard. Mag. p. 401.) as to whether salt be a stimulus or a manure, but rather strongly recommend the able communication of the former to the practical reader, and await the light which may be thrown on the subject in a future number by the latter correspondent. Used in small quantities, we are very much inclined to think with Mr. Cline, that salt may be found" of as much benefit to land as to the human constitution." It does not follow, that because it is used in large quantities to destroy, it may not be used in small quantities to promote, vegetation. We lately saw an approach road in Staffordshire, thickly coated over with salt, the article being in that part of the country abundant and cheap; we hope, therefore, that some of our readers in that quarter will try some experiments, and communicate the result. Suppose we request to do this each of the gardeners in that part of the country, and in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, that we called on in October last. We here call upon them to lend their aid in discovering the value of salt in gardening, and shall confide in their doing so; and as they are all readers of this Magazine, we shall give them no farther notice, but only request that they will severally communicate the result of their trials on or before the 1st of January 1828, so that they may be published on the 1st of April following. To prevent mistakes or excuses, the following are the names of the proposed experimenters in the order in which we called at their gardens: Mr. Harrison, Wortley Hall, and such of his sons as have an opportunity. Mr. Acon, Worksop Manor. Mr. Thompson, Welbeck. Mr. Bennet, Thoresby Park. The Manager who may be appointed to the Duke of Portland's farms in Clipstone Park. (When we called there on the 15th of October, the late manager had been buried that morning.) Mr. Johnstone, Newstead Abbey. We should wish all the above, and as many other gardeners and farmers in every part of the country as are friends to their own art, to try common salt as a top dressing to the common or annual kitchen and field crops; to grass and to asparagus, sea-kale, rhubarb, and other perennial crops, and on the soil about trees and shrubs. Its effects on perennials and ornamental plants will probably not be ascertained properly before two or three years, and therefore we shall not expect the result of experiments as to them till January 1829 or 1830. In order to measure the quantity of salt used, we would recommend every person intending to try an experiment, to cut a hole in a turnip or a potatoe, or in wood, which will hold exactly a cubic inch, and we think an inch of common salt to a square yard for broad cast crops, or to two lineal yards of those sown in rows, would be a very good proportion for experiment. This would also enable gardeners to try a number of 7 how experiments at very little expence. We wish every one, ever, to take his own way, and whatever they do not to forget to send the result to this Magazine. - Cond. ART. II. Description of an improved Garden Wall proposed to be built at H, near Bristol. By J. A. B. Esq. Sir, I SEND you the following description of a garden wall which I am about to erect. It will consist of two four-inch brick walls, as in the accompanying section (fig. 1. a, b), worked in good mortar, twelve feet high, five feet apart at the bottom, and gradually approaching to the top, where it may terminate in a coping brick. I have consulted my bricklayer, who will build it for little more than a nineinch wall, the quantity of bricks being about the same, considering that there will be no occasion for piers for strength. The ends are closed by two low doors, and there are two apertures at the top, the whole length being about thirty yards. The only objection to the plan is the little additional space the wall takes up, the base being five feet wide: but I conceive I shall have an advantage much exceeding the loss; first, in the additional exposure to the sun a 1 gained by the slanting direction of the surface of the wall. next in the thickness, by which the wall will be kept dry; and particularly in the means which the hollow space will afford me, at a comparatively small expence and trouble, of drying the wall in autumn and spring, by occasionally lighting a little litter or gorse at each end, and closing up the doors, and B 4 |