b “ 
= , 
4 4 
On Plaister of Paris. 29 
worth ten times what it was before I plaistered it, the 
face of the soil appearing to be entirely changed, and 
isadmired by all who have heretofore known it, the 
plaister having had the effect they have known upon 
it. This has encouraged me to treat all the field in the 
same manner, which has been nearly done to the same 
<ood effect. 
Query 6. In consequence do you find that it renders 
the earth sterile after its useful effects are gone ?*- 
Answer. I have never yet found it to have any bad 
effect upon any land that I have put it on, and as I re- 
peat the use of the plaister as often as I sow with clover, 
I have not experienced the beneficial effects to be gone; 
but I find that in pasture land that has lain for four or 
five years or more, it occasions a stiff sward to plough; 
put when well ploughed and pulverised, it is as light and 
mellow as it has been before the plaister was put on: 
and I am fully of opinion, were farmers to be careful 
to mow all they possibly can where the plaister is used; 
the great addition they would thereby gain to their 
usual proportion of manure would render it almost im- 
possible ever to have that effect,as mowing is much 
* The bugbear exhaustion has been long found to be a 
mere phantom. I have not a field which is not the better for 
repetitions of plaister. Itis known that my applications were 
not only the earliest, but for many years on the most exten- 
sive scale. I continue to use the gyps freely and in large 
quantities. 
RP. 
September, 1810. 
