Pliny says, that if salt be given to cattle and sheep, they yield much more milk, and that the cheese produced from it is better:-" Quin et pecudes armentaque et jumenta sale maxime solicitantur ad pastum, multo largiore lacte, multoque gratiore etiam, in caseo dote."* A Danish writer says, that "salt is an excellent thing, and indispensibly necessary to sheep, as it not only prevents diseases, but contributes to strengthen them, and to promote their fattening." He recommends" half a firkin to be strewed, once a week, over the food allotted to every score of these animals; but the day that salt is given, they must be prevented from drinking, which might occasion the dropsy." The same author recommends salt and horse-raddish, mixed up with chopped rye-straw, to be given to horses when they are housed, to prevent their being attacked by diseases, in consequence of the confinement, and change of food. He states, likewise, that juniper-berries and salt, if given to cattle, will prevent diseases, and contribute to preserve them in good condition. The most convenient mode of administering the salt, is to dissolve it in water, and to besprinkle their provender, whatever it be, twice a-week with the brine.† That sheep are fond of salt, says another Danish writer," is beyond all doubt; it is equally certain, that, to these animals, it is a preservative against many diseases; and, if I am not greatly mistaken, contributes, in no small degree, to render their wool finer."+ Mr. Young, in his remarks on sheep-grazing in France, seems to draw a conclusion, that salt, given to sheep, is of great benefit to them; and the fact, which he quotes from Mr. Collinson, that, when feeding on a limestone substratum, they never eat it, is curious, the truth of which might be easily ascertained in Ireland, where there are very extensive districts of pasture ground, lying wholly on a substratum of limestone. A late writer, speaking of the Spanish sheep, says, " when the flocks arrive at the country in which they are to pass the summer, they are allowed as much salt as they will eat, and the quantity for the five summer months, is about 24 lbs. for each sheep." The rock-salt (sal gem) is laid on flat stones, and the sheep lick it as they pass from their fold to their pastures; but when they feed on * Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxi, cap. 7. Lugd. Bat. 1669, vo iii, p. 683. + See Samlinger, om Agerdyrkning, og Lundvæsen. Krobenhavn, 1792, trechihefre, p. 52, 84, 136. Description of the Faro Islands, by the Reverend G. Landt, London, 1810, p. 331. Ff Use of a chalky or limestone soil, the quantity of salt is either lessened or withheld. After licking the salt, they are usually driven to an argelaceous soil, where having, from their previous regimen, acquired a sharpness of appetite, they feed with greater eagerness. Mr. Wakefield conjectures, that in Ireland or England the vicinity of so large a body of salt water as the ocean, by which these countries are surrounded, may materially alter the case, and render this practice there unnecessary; but, as it is an undoubted fact that animals require salt on continents, it most certainly ought to be tried in these islands, as Mr. Wakefield's supposition, of the salt of the ocean being carried to any considerable distance beyond those places to which the spray of the sea may be driven by violent winds, is rather unphilosophical. We have never had any experience ourselves of the effects of giving salt to animals in a crude state, but we have repeatedly seen, and particularly at Mr. Cornelius Bolton's of Faithleg, near Waterford, that damaged hay, when salted, was eaten by both cattle and horses, more greedily than the best hay upon the farm. Salt is not only of great utility, being mixed with the food of anisalt as a mals, but it is of great use in agriculture, and whenever the finances of manure. this country are in such a state as to admit of the duties being repealed, the greatest improvements in husbandry may be expected from the use of sea-salt. Mr. Le Goux, in his History of the Cocoa-nut Tree, tells us, that the inhabitants of those parts of Hindostan and China which border on the sea coasts, sprinkle their rice fields with sea water, and use no other manure; and that in the interior of these countries, they sprinkle the lands with salt before they are tilled, and that this practice has been followed for ages with he greatest advantage. "In a conversation with a gentleman, who has spent many years of a valuable life in making experiments on the employment of salt in agriculture, and in endeavouring to procure an act of Parliament to sanction its use, I was informed, that one bushel to an acre, makes land always more productive; but that a larger quantity would, for two or three years afterwards, render it actually sterile."‡ In preparing salt from the brine, there is a refuse part which is formed by the separation and decomposition of the grosser particles from the pure salt. This is cleared out from the pans, and thrown on the ground, to the * Jacob's Travels in Spain. + Wakefield's Account of Ireland, vol. i, p. 342. Park's Chemical Catechism, note 220. 1 amount of several bushels at each boiling. Before the excessive increase of the duties, the salt proprietors were allowed to dispose of this refuse salt to the farmers, who knew the value of it as a manure, and however inferior it might be to pure salt, were very glad to purchase as much as they could get of it at 25s. per ton, half of which went as a duty to government, and the rest was a clear gain to the salt proprietor. The quantity of this manure, which was at one time sold at Northwich alone to the farmers of that neighbourhood, amounted, as we are informed by Bishop Watson, to near 120,000 bushels annually. This was a very considerable boon to agriculture, and an equal advantage to the salt proprietor and to government, in respect to the duty it paid. But when the duty on salt was still more increased, the disposal of this refuse salt was prohibited, to the great regret of the farmers, the country was deprived of a cheap and rich manure, and the whole of this refuse salt was, until the late act of Parliament, under a relentless order, carefully swept up by the proprietor's labourers and thrown into the river. . By this act, section 45, all refuse upon the salt works are now allowed to be disposed of without being subject to any duty whatever, and any compost manures, or ashes of any kind, are allowed to be drenched or steeped in brine without any duty whatever, which must be of vast advantage in improving agriculture in that part of the country; but it is to be hoped that government will not stop short in this partial indulgence, but will next session of Parliament allow salt to be taken generally free from duty for manuring the ground, for it has been found, within the course of the last 30 years, to produce the most beneficial and extraordinary effects in the cultivation of waste lands, as well as in the amelioration of lands already under cultivation. "The vicinity of a lime quarry," says Sir Thomas Bernard, " or the power of communicating with one by water carriage, is marked in every part of England by improved cultivation and increased fertility. Yet lime is not so cheap, nor so universal, nor so powerful a manure, as salt. Lime must be applied in much larger quantities, the carriage is so * In his agricultural survey of Cheshire, (p. 238), Mr. Holland notices an experiment made with this refuse salt, where it was spread in the middle of October on a piece of sour rushey ground, after the rate of eight bushels to the acre; and, in another part, sixteen bushels. In a short time the vegetation disappeared totally, and, during the month of April following, not a blade of grass was to be seen. In the latter end of the month of May, a most flourishing crop made its appearance on that part where the eight bushels had been laid. In the month of July, the other portion produced a still stronger crop, the cattle were remarkably fond of it, and during the whole ensuing winter, and for several years, the land retained, and yet exhibits, a superior verdure to the neighbouring closes. much more expensive, and there are many parts of England where it cannot be had at any price to answer for the husbandman. But salt, duty free, is a great deal cheaper, and (as far as experiment has gone), very superior in power and permanency of effect, and it is easily to be obtained in all the remote and desert parts of the island, the expence of carriage being comparatively nothing.* We might dwell much longer on the uses of salt, but we shall sum up the whole in the words of Dr. Thomson :-" The uses for which this salt is subservient, are exceedingly numerous. It is the most common, and the most useful seasoner of food; it preserves meat from putrefaction, and butter from rancidity; it serves for an enamel on the surface of course stoneware; it is an ingredient in many processes of dyeing; metallurgists use it in many of their assays. Its utility in chemistry is equally extensive. From it alone are muriatic and oxymuriatic acids obtained, and from it also great quantities of soda have been extracted, and introduced with advantage as a substitute for the soda formerly obtained from the combustion of vegetables."† * To manure twenty acres of land with lime, where lime can be got, will require two hundred carts loads of lime, which, at only 1s. a load, will cost £10, whilst twenty bushels of salt, at the expence of 10s, mixed up with three or four loads of lime or dirt, will answer the same purpose. I mentioned one bushel to one acre, on the authority of a gentleman who made a series of experiments on salt as a manure, and held, that the proportions of a bushel to one acre answered best, and made the land more productive. Different proportions, however, may suit different soils. Sir Thomas Bernard on the Repeal of the Salt Tax, p. 14. + Thomson's Chemistry, vol. II, p. 313, in which he glves an account of the different methods of extracting the soda or mineral alkali from salt. SECTION XVI. Advantages of Ingenuity and Industry being free from restraint__ Coals of great importance for the Comfort of Life, and for almost all Branches of Manufacture-Great advantages of Ireland in this respect, from being situated opposite to the Western Parts of Great Britain, where Coals abound-To Profit by those advantages of situation New Harbours ought to be erected in many parts of the Eastern Coast, and those gone to decay repaired-An Account of the Harbours on the Eastern Coast-Situations described for erecting New Harbours, where also Fishing Villages may be established-Great oppression of the Salt Duties in Ireland-Cause of great Misery--Almost wholly destroyed the Boat Fishing-Several other Fishing Stations pointed out and described. It is the industry and ingenuity of the inhabitants of a country being employed without restraint upon the land, the mines, and the fisheries, which form the great sources of productive labour, especially in such countries as the British islands, where the ocean, which flows around their coasts, affords the ready means of exporting the surplus of their productive labours to the most distant countries in every quarter of the globe. It is evidently from Great Britain having enjoyed more advantages in those respects, than most other countries in Europe, that her wealth and strength is chiefly to be ascribed. Ireland is separated from England by a narrow channel, which presents the important advantage of a safe and speedy communication by a navigable canal, formed by nature, and supported at no expence to the inhabitants of the sister islands, who are, by this means, enabled by nature to carry on a reciprocal communication of mutual benefits, providing only that the art and the industry of man be exerted, to enable both countries to improve the advantages presented to them by the beneficent hand of nature. The eastern and southern coasts of Ireland are placed opposite to those parts of the coasts of England, Scotland, and Wales, which abound with coals, in many situations adjacent to the shore, from the river Clyde on the north, to the Bristol G g |