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plaster-sick. But this is mere prejudice. Other causes, entirely 

 distinct from the effects of the plaster, operate, in such cases, to 

 abate the fertility of the soil. The land most probably in such 

 cases requires cultivation ; or a change of crop ; or some manure, 

 either in the form of a green dressing ploughed in or animal 

 manure, applied to it. 



3. Wood Ashes. — Wood ashes have been used upon the 

 land in many cases ; and, as reported, always with success. 

 This conforms, it may be said, to almost universal experience. 

 The practice of one of the best farmers in Northfield, and on a 

 limited scale inferior to no one in the State, was peculiar and 

 successful. On the alluvial meadows after grain, where the stub- 

 ble was full of clover, in the spring when the clover was dead 

 or decayed, his practice was to turn it in with tiie plough, and 

 on this ground to plant his Indian corn in hills, puttiug a small 

 amount of wood ashes and gypsum mixed, in each hill. No 

 barn or animal manure had been applied to the land for years, 

 and his crops of Indian corn averaged from fifty to seventy bush- 

 els per acre. 



Solomon Reed, of Rowe, speaks strongly of the great bene- 

 fits arising from the use of leached ashes. The good effects 

 have been apparent eleven years after their application. 



Gardner Dickinson, of Conway, applied one bushel of crude 

 ashes per acre to four acres of grass land. The ashes were 

 spread in the spring. The crop was considered as doubled by 

 the application. In Sunderland, Whately, and in various other 

 places, the testimony was equally unanimous and strong in 

 their favor. 



4. Clay. — In one or more cases it has been for some time 

 the practice to carry clay on to the mowing land, and after lay- 

 ing it in heaps, when it becomes broken by the frost, to spread 

 it as a top-dressing upon the grass. This has been followed 

 with the best results ; and the application is represented as equal 

 to a dressing of the best barn manure, and in its effects more 

 permanent. The application of a good dressing of clay upon 

 peat lands has, in other parts of the State, been greatly approved, 

 and preferred by some who have used it to any other. A soil 



