100 WISCOXSLN" AGRICULTFEE. 



"Not TinfrequentlT vre traveled for miles orer contmnoTL? 

 beds, wliicli, fix)m their snowy -vrhiteness and the great abund- 

 ance of glittering selenite (^transparent gypsian) they contained, 

 added crreatlv to the interest of the scenerv : ■vrhile here and 

 there, were immense bluffs — often several miles in extent, and 

 thickly capped -witli the same material — projected to the beight 

 of two or three bxindred feet above the level of the sarrounding 

 country." 



There are also extensive quarries in Xew Brunswick and 

 Nova Scotia. 



But He who made the great "West with its fertile prairies, 

 beautiful wood-lands, majestic lakes and mighty rivers, and 

 made it to be the home of fifty millions of his noblest people, 

 wisely provided for the great time coming — ^when the soil will be 

 forced to yield more than five times its present crops — ^by stor- 

 ing away in the lime formations of "Western Michigan, immense 

 quantities of this precious mineral. And just now, while we 

 write, there lie before us several beautiful specimens of as good 

 quality as we have ever seen quarried in the States. Some are 

 pure white, some beautifully variegated, while others are 

 marked by such spots of translucency as to make one wonder, 

 whether there be not somewhere thereabout, a mine of pure 

 alabaster! 



The specimens referred to are from the vicinity of Grand 

 Eapids, Michigan, where several individuals, having tested its 

 value as a building material, are preparing to operate on a large 

 scale. Success to their enterprise. If it prove a strong and 

 desirable material for this purpose, hardening by exposure, as 

 reported, there is nothing superior to it in the world; and brick 

 — even Milwaukee brick, for fine structures will be voted out of 

 date. But whether it answer this purpose or not, it is neverthe- 

 less a fine quality of gyp-sum, and as such, for fertilizing 

 purposes, is destined to recuperate the worn-out fields of our 

 early settled districts ; and, furthermore, we hope, prove a pre- 

 ventive of that deplorable exhaustion to which even our newest 

 lands, too many of them, are rapidly hastening. Here is the 



