I yp J. ■ experiments on gypsum. 301 — 2" 



would be li oz. l-j^^l^ to a square yard j at that rate five 

 hundred weight is sufficient for an acre, and forty-one 

 pounds allowed for waste. The rough material at. the 

 quarry I2s. 6 A. per acre; but there are rocks against 

 the sea. in this county, near Minehead ; in Devonihire, 

 on the south coast, near Sydmouth j and most likely on 

 the sea coast in most parts of the island, which may pro- 

 bably be come at on more easy terms. The difficulty 

 ■will be, to reduce it to powder at a small expence, if it 

 fliould be found answerable. 



In April and May last, at different times in gentle 

 rains, on five different places on a clayey soil, on a pas- 

 ture laid down more than twenty years ago with rye-grafs, 

 I sowed in each place one peck of the powder ; also one- 

 peck on sanfoin in its fifth year's growth ; one peck on 

 young oats ; and one peck on spring vetches or tares ; all 

 at the rate of six bulhels per acre, and it has had no ap- 

 parent eflect on either of those places. 



But on the same day on which I sowed four pecks of 

 the above experiments, vix. April 13. 1 sowed li oz. of 

 this flour of gypsum on a square yard of grafs ground^ 

 where no stock goes, which was laid down sixteen or se- 

 venteen years ago, partly with Dutch clover seed. There 

 (the soil an heavy loam,) from the middle of May to the 

 end of June, when it was mown, the grafs was greener 

 than that around it. In the beginning of July, slight 

 rains falling, it appeared greener, and by the end of Au- 

 gust, the grafs on that spot was not only greener, but 

 thicker and higher, and the leaves of the Dutch clover 

 broader than on the outsides of it. August the 31st 

 It was mowed again, and the same appearances en- 

 sued and continued until the 10th of November, when 

 it was mowed again. It is observable, that, at the time of 

 sowing the gypsum powder, the wind blew S. E. and it is 

 visible to an inch how far beyond the line, and from peg 



