184 0?i plaster of Paris. 



The spring of 1821 and 18^2, 1 sowed clover largely, and 

 as thick as n>y neighbours did ; and the seasons were so 

 exvremely dry vve lost it all ; but the clover sowed in 1823, 

 ard this year, has stood extremely well. I never saw finer 

 clover fields since I lived in this country, which has 

 been from 1802 ; and although we had generally bare 

 fields to fallow last summer, the clover being killed 

 the year before by drought, yet I never have seen the 

 vheat crops appear better for these twenty years, and 

 in fact every thing now looks as promising as ever I 

 saiv it. I have never lost my faith in the plaster, and 

 it is now as strong as ever. 1 know it makes the clo- 

 ver grow uncommonly well the second year, if we can 

 get it to stand the first. I know of nothing that creates ve- 

 getable matter like clover and plaster; and this substance 

 when once got into the land, makes every thing grow un- 

 commonly well that vve put into it. The ploughing large 

 crops of dead clover in August, for a fallow crop of wheat, 

 has, in a number of cases, in this country, almost ruined 

 the crops of wheat, whilst fields of clover adjoining, pretty 

 closely fed down through the summer, have had good 

 crops. How is this to be accounted for ? I have seen no 

 written observations on the subject, but have thought that 

 the reason was, that the clover being so hard to rot, 

 the putrefaction was not far enough advanced in the fall 

 nor early in the spring, for the vegetable matter to be in 

 a proper slate to feed the wheat. And another reason is, 

 that It keeps the land too open, and loose, for. wheat to 

 grow well ; for I always notice that wheat grows best 

 where the land is tight, or hard, in the spring, if clean. 

 Br't here I am staggered again, for a friend of mine told 

 me last week, that Mr. John Taylor, of Caroline county, 

 in this State, wrote a statement, which he saw ; giving an 

 account of his ploughing a slip in June, when in bloom, 

 and another slip along side, when dead, and all sowed 



