FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 219 



Indian corn is also greatly benefited by a similar applica- 

 tion to the hills. Let the gypsum be scattered a little in 

 both cases. 



Its effects on pumpkins, squashes, and other plants of 

 that sort, is said to be great; also, on cabbages, and proba- 

 bly on turnips of different kinds, as they are all different 

 sorts of Brassica. Most probably, all plants will be more or 

 less assisted, in their growth, by a proper application of 

 gypsum. 



Every Farmer and Planter ought to keep a constant sup- 

 ply of this excelent manure, if it can be obtained at any 

 reasonable price, and his lands be more or less naturally 

 sterile, or exhausted, and suitable for its application. He 

 will find that, with proper management, every bushel he 

 applies to his lands will yield him double, and from that 

 even to ten-fold, its value, according to his soil, the price 

 gypsum costs him, and the uses to which he applies it. 



Its application, together with the cultivation of red-clover., 

 and other suitable grasses, to almost all the dry-lands of the 

 Atlantic States, lying south of Pennsylvania, is a desidera- 

 tum of the utmost importance to the Planters of that natu- 

 rally fine tract of country ; a country not generally of a very 

 strong durable soil ; that has suffered much from the most 

 exhausting crops, and the worst of husbandry ; but is, 

 nevertheless, susceptible of being made second to none in 

 the United States, by a proper system of culture, with the 

 aid of gypsum, and other suitable manures, and grasses. 



Generally speaking, little else but these are wanting to 

 raise the value of the plantations of that country to five, 

 and, in some instances, to ten, times the amount of the 

 prices they at present command. 



Col. Taylor, of Virginia, from various trials of gypsum, 

 draws the following conclusions : That this manure should 

 be mixed with the earth, by harrowing or ploughing ; that 

 drought may defeat its operation on Indian corn, if the ma- 

 nure be not thus worked into the soil; and that its effects 

 on this crop are as great in this way, as when applied to 

 the hills ; that it increases the fertilizing effects of coarse^ 

 barn-dung; that gypsum may greatly increase a crop of 

 red-clover, when sown even as late as May ; that even a 

 half-bushel of this manure, to an acre, may often be found 

 as efficient as a much larger quantity ; that an excess of 

 moisture, or of drought, commonly destroys its operation ; 

 that the state of the ground, or of the atmosphere, whether 

 wet, or dry, at the time of sowing this manure, is not es- 

 sential ; but that the state of each, afterwards, is of particu- 

 lar consequence ; that its . effects are more likely to be de- 

 ieated when sown on the ground, than when worked into 

 it; that sowing it broadcast on Indian corn, after it is up., 



