COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 3YP3UM. 105 



\vliich might be made to increase their yield of Grass 

 one-third by a moderate dressing of it. 



I have heard Andrew B. Dickinson, late of Steuben 

 County, and one of the best unscientific, unlearned 

 fanners ever produced by our State, maintain that he 

 can not only enrich his own farm but impoverish hit; 

 neighbors' by the free use of Gypsum on his woodless 

 hills. The chemist's explanation of this eifect ip 

 above indicated. The plastered land attracts an') 

 absorbs not only its own fair proportion of the breeze- 

 borne Ammonia, but much that, if the equilibrium 

 had not been disturbed by such application, would 

 have been deposited on the adjacent hills. As Mr. 

 D. makes not the smallest pretensions to science, the 

 coincidence between his dictum and the chemist's 

 theory is noteworthy. 



Now that our country is completely gridironed 

 with Canals and Railroads, bringing whatever has a 

 mercantile value very near every one's door, I sug- 

 gest that no township should go without Gypsum. 

 Five dollars will buy at least two barrels of it almost 

 anywhere ; and two barrels may be sown over five or 

 six acres. Let it be sown so that its effect (or non- 

 eflfect) may be palpable ; give it a fair, careful trial, 

 and await the result. If it seem to subserve no 

 good purpose, be not too swift to enter up judgment; 

 but buy two barrels more, vary your time and 

 method of application, and try again. If the result 

 be still null, let it be given up that Gypsum is not 

 the fertilizer needed just there that some ill-under- 

 5* 



