MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



the various theories which have obtained, in 

 respect to the fertiHzing action of gypsum. 



' A farmer, for instance, finds himself within 

 easy reach of a large supply of this salt, and 

 being chemically inclined, he sets himself to 

 the task of reading what has been written on 

 the subject,— in the hope, possibly, of astound- 

 ing the neighbors, and glutting the corn mar- 

 ket. 



At the outset I may remark, that farm- 

 experience has as yet found no law by which 

 to govern the application of gypsum; on one 

 field it succeeds; in another, to all appearance 

 precisely the same, it fails ; at one time it would 

 seem as if its efficacy depended on showers 

 following closely upon its application ; in other 

 seasons, showers lose their effect. In one local- 

 ity, a few bushels to the acre work strange im- 

 provement, and in another, fifty bushels work 

 no change whatever. Now— it is a hill pasture 

 that delights in it, and again— it is an alluvial 

 meadow. Hence it offers peculiarly one of 

 those cases, where an observant and earnest 

 farmer would be desirous of calling in the aid 

 of scientific opinion. 



And what will he find ? 



Sir Humphry Davy, that devout old gentle- 

 man, who was as good an angler as he was 



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