2S8 AGRlCCLtURAL ESSAYS. 



8Ped corn, bushel to bushel, and in mixing it wiih seed wheat 

 so moist as to let the wheat divide in sowiKg, in such a quanti- 

 ty as that the land shall receive not less than three pecks to 

 the acre. The latter is chiefly for the sake of the succeeaing 

 clover. The wheat is benefited in a very small degree, but it 

 prevents embezzlement of the seed. He thinks it a valuable 

 ally of, but by no means a substitute for, manure. That there 

 should be intervals of two, three, or four years between apply- 

 ing it to the same land. That its effect is graduated by the 

 quantity of vegetable matter upon which it is sown. That 

 upon close grazed land it does little good at first,'and repeated, 

 would become pernicious ; and that it must be united with 

 long manure of the winter, or the ungrazed vegetable cover 

 produced in the summer. That all crops are ultimately im*- 

 proved by its impro\^ng the soil, even when its effects are not 

 immediately visible, but he does not recommend it as a top 

 dressing, except for clover. M. Canolle, a French writer, ob- 

 serves, that plaster, acting, or operating chiefly on the absorb- 

 ant sys/em of plants, its effects are not like those of manures 

 buried in the soil, which act principally on the roots. The 

 latter, according to their particular nature, divide, soften, en- 

 rich, warm, or stiffen the soils with which they are mixed. 

 The quantity of plaster, spread upon the land, is so trifling, that 

 it can have little effect on the soil. I speak, says he, from ex- 

 perience. Plaster buried in the earth where sain foin has been 

 sown, has produced no visible alteration; whilst the same 

 quantity of plaster spread over the same surface of sain foin, 

 has produced the most beautiful vegetation. From this expe- 

 rience, so uniform in the application of plaster, I am led to be- 

 lieve, that one must consult as well the nature jf the soil, as 

 the kinds of plants to which we apply plaster. Thus whatever 

 may be the soil on which clover, lucerne, and sain foin natur- 

 ally flourish vigorously, or with that vigor which encourages 

 us to apply manure, there is no risque in trying plaster. 



In an essay on manures, which took the premiumin Albany, 

 in 1819 some remarks were made on the proper manner of 



