oils 
122 On Plaister of Paris. 
~ T do not discover any doubts on the subject of its 
constantly ameliorating, instead of exhausting, the soil. 
On the contrary, some of the facts are stronger in favour 
of amelioration, than in my experience I have per- 
ceived. Some allege that ground long plaistered ploughs 
tough: sowe often find it. The general opinion seems 
to be, that its application in small quantities, even as 
low as half a bushel to the acre, and frequent repeti- 
tions, are best. They are much in the habit of ro/- 
fing all their grain, for seed, in plaister. Their times 
of application of top-dressings, are, in general, the same 
with ours. Many prefer covering the plaister, after spread- 
ing it over the whole field, in quantities of from one to 
two and an half bushels per acre. There is an instance 
of plaistering half a field of Indian corn when in tassel, 
and its producing double the number of barrels of 
of corn, compared with the crop in the unplaistered 
moiety. On clover they esteem it most efficacious, but 
they speak favorably of its effects on any kind of grass, 
or grain ; and find its, efficacy increased by a small ap- 
plication of dung.’ They find, that seed potatoes cut 
and plaistered, produce more abundantly. I have ex- 
perienced the same effect. Lands producing, in their 
exhausted state; only seven bushels of corn, and five of 
wheat to the acre, have been made, by plaister alone with 
clover crops, to bring 40 bushels of the former, and 30 
of the latter, per acre ; and their fertility remains on the 
advance. ‘They mix various quantities of plaister with 
their seed grain; from an half to a bushel of gypsum, to 5 
and 6 bushels of grain. ‘The grain is, as is done by us, 
wetted or soaked previously. Some of the Loudon farmers’ 
think, as I do, that top dressing with plaister on wheat 
