On Ploister of Paris $= 48 
” 
ca 
Query 7. To what products can it be best applied ?— 
grain and what kinds ?—grasses and what kinds ? 
Answer. 1 have used it most on red clover, and know 
no crop which it improves so much ; it does very well 
on white clover and mixed grasses, but not equally so 
as on red clover. I have tried it on Indian corn With 
different degrees of success. Jt enlarges the plant I think 
more than the product of the corn.* On wheat, rye, &c. 
if it did any good, it was very trifling. | 
Query 8. When is the best time to scatter it ? 
Answer. This may be done at any season, but as it 
operates quickly, the least time is lost by putting it on 
when vegetation is coming on rapidly in the spring, or 
soon after mowing the first crop. 
* I have sometimes suspected this to be the case, but have 
never been able exactly to ascertain the fact. In some seasons 
I have had very large, and in others moderately sized ears of 
plants, which appeared equally vigorous. The plant gets the 
greater part of its growth before the ears begin to set. I have 
supposed that its earing, well or ill, depended not so much 
on the plaister, as upon previous culture; and season and 
other circumstances at the time the ears are forming and 
fillmg. Let the ears in any particular season be smaller or 
larger than usual with plaistered corn, they are ulways better 
than those on rows leit unplaistered in the same field.t 
R. P. 
+ My practice now is to scatter the plaister over the whole field (two bushels to the acre) and 
harrow itin. I also dust a little on the plants when young at the first dressing. I find the roots 
eoming in contact, throughout the field, with the gypsum (operating on the putrefied substances, 
and supplying food and moisture) has much greater efficacy. 
R. P, 
September 1810. 
