24 THE FARMER'S MANUAL. 



" In April 1797, i dressed part of a spire-grass mea- 

 dow with plaster, there then being a light snow upon 

 the ground, which soon went off: ten or twelve days 

 after, I dressed the other part of the meadow with plas- 

 ter ; there was soon a material difference between the 

 two parts, and it continued through the season. The 

 part first dressed received much the most benefit. 



" From my experiments I have found that scatter- 

 ing gypsum over the whole land was better than 

 putting it upon the hills of corn ; that my pastures 

 have been greatly improved by it, and that when 

 I have ploughed them afterwards, on which plas- 

 ter had been strewed, the crops and grasses have de- 

 rived more benefit from the plaster, than if it were 

 applied the same year that the crops and grasses 

 were sowed. The land on which I have used plas- 

 ter is loamy. My neighbours have derived much be- 

 nefit from it upon their sandy river land. I have 

 been as successful with the Nova-Scotia plaster as with 

 any, and think it as good as the European. I used 

 to put as much as three bushels to the acre, I now 

 do not apply more than two, and I am persuaded that 

 two bushels answer as well as three. I have never 

 used so good, and cheap manure as the plaster, and I 

 look upon my land as double in value by its discove- 

 ry." 



I have extracted this report of Mr. Holbrooks at 

 large, because it goes to prove with more nicety, and 

 precision, the real value, as well as the true, and best 

 methods of using Gypsum, of any series of experi- 

 ments that I have seen. The fact that plaster sown 

 upon grass, or even pasture lands, gives an immediate 

 profit, is of importance ; but that the same lands 

 when ploughed for tillage, two or three years after- 

 ward give an additional value to the crops from the 

 plaster thus sown, is doubly useful, both from its im- 

 mediate, and subsequent effects : this is reaping the 

 profits of the manure twice over, and is an undoubted 

 evidence of its durability. Whoever reads this re- 



