Abstract

As the very name indicates common salt is quite a common substance which is both cheap and abundant. Its use as an item of man's daily dietary is well-known and widespread, but what is not so widely known is its use as a manure in agriculture. Salt is mentioned as a manure in the Bible, and by Roman poets like Virgil and Cato. English farmers of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries as well as German and Spanish farmers were also well aware of its use as manure, but still, at the present day it is difficult to find another fertiliser, the utility of which is so hotly disputed, as common salt. Even as early as 1805 salt was recognised as very useful manure, particularly for turnips, sugar beet and mangolds and also for whent in potash-deficient soils. Subsequently the use of salt fell nway, due mainly to the vigorous development of other fertilisers like super-phosphate, ammonium sulphate, potash salts, kainit, Chilean nitrate etc. It is worth noting that even then, plenty of sodium and chlorides were being added to the soil, though in different compounds such as Chilean nitrate (i. e. nitrate of soda): Kainit was mostly potassium chloride and many other low-grade potash salts that were used as fertilisers, contained large proportions of sodium chloride. During the First World War (1914-18) there was a revival of interest in using common salt as a substitute for potash, but due to erratic results it earned more discredit than credit in this period.

Keywords: