200 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5. 



GYPSUM NOT INJURED AS MANURE BY BEING 

 HEATED. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Registi r. 



Fairfield District, S. C, July 11th, 1835. 



Impressed with the justness of a remark of 

 yours, that "information obtained irom statements 

 in detail of agricultural experiments, is far more 

 satisfactory to the attentive and laborious inquirer, 

 than a mere report of the general opinions of the 

 experimenter," and in accordance with that spirit, 

 I now offer you a brief account of an experiment, 

 which perhaps may not be uninteresting. 



In the spring of 1834, intending to plaster a lot 

 of orchard grass, I ordered a few barrels of gyp- 

 sum from Charleston. As I had before found the 

 process of pulverizing the stone rather trouble- 

 some, I requested my factor to purchase the gyp- 

 sum already ground into powder. When the 

 gypsum arrived, 1 was astonished at the high 

 price it had cost me, to wit, six dollars per barrel; 

 but not suspecting the judgement of my factor as 

 to the quality of the article, I made no examination 

 of it myself, but placed it entirely to the account 

 of imposition. In June I had it spread over the 

 grass at the rate of one bushel per acre. The 

 very next day after having spread it, a pfastercr 

 who it seems had previously examined the plaster, 

 called on me to ask the favor, as the article was 

 not to be had in the Columbia market, of a barrel 

 of it, to finish a job of stucco-work in which he 

 was then engnged. I told him there was still a 

 barrel on hand which he might have, but that it 

 was raw gypsum, and that he would have to put 

 it through the process called "boiling." before he 

 could use it. He replied that it had already gone 

 through that process, and was excellent plaster 

 for his work. I denied the fact, as I had bought 

 it for simply ground gypsum. He, however, in- 

 stantly undeceived me; and convinced me, by 

 working a little of it into plaster, that, he was right; 

 upon which he took the barrel, with which he 

 finished his job of stucco-work. 



As I had never seen any account of the ap- 

 plication of gypsum in aid of vegetation that had 

 undergone the process of heating, it at once oc- 

 curred to me that I had probably destroyed my 

 lot of grass. Reflecting a moment, however, 

 upon the effect of heat upon gypsum, it was ob- 

 vious that it, had undergone no essential change 

 in its component principles, except the expulsion of 

 the water of composition. It was still the sul- 

 phate of lime in a more concentrated and con- 

 densed state; and as in this state its avidity for 

 water is so prodigiously great, I concluded the 

 first rain, or perhaps the dews, would soon satu- 

 rate it, and re-convert it into its natural state of 

 gypsum; and, therefore, I could not conceive how 

 it could injure the grass, unless from an over-dose 

 of gypsum in consequence of its greater strength 

 to the bushel, of which I felt but little apprehen- 

 sion. In a few days afterwards, upon receiving 

 one of the numbers of your Register, I was grati- 

 fied to find you had opened a discussion upon the 

 same subject, the first which I had ever seen; and 

 so far, in the absence of any experiment, the 

 same conclusion had been arrived at by yourself. 

 My accidental experiment, however, I think 

 goes far towards settling the question. The grass 

 never showed any signs of unhealthiness, or suf- 

 fered in any way for a moment; but on the con- 



trary, from the manner it sustained one of the 

 severest droughts ever witnessed in August, and 

 again the unparalleled cold of the last winter, and 

 the manner in which it has subsequently flourish- 

 ed, and retained its verdure, I am satisfied the 

 mistake was all in favor of the grass. I had ap- 

 plied gypsum to a part of the same lot in June of 

 the year preceding. The benefits were very 

 manifest, but not equal to those from the last 

 plastering. In 1832, I applied it at the rate of 

 about one bushel per acre of unheated gypsum, 

 and it was my intention to apply only one bushel 

 per acre in 1834; but by the mistake, as gypsum 

 contains 22 per cent, of water, which had been 

 driven off, I of course applied what was equal to 

 one bushel and nearly a quarter of the unheated 

 article; which the result has shown was not too 

 much. 



The. great objection then to the application of 

 gypsum that has undergone the process of heat- 

 ing, as a fertilizing substance, consists in the ex- 

 pense, and not in any deleterious or impaired qual- 

 ities of it — which expense at the rate I paid, was 

 far too great. The heated plaster cost me about 

 two dollars per bushel, whilst I never paid higher 

 than ten dollars per ton in Charleston for the gyp- 

 sum in stone, and have bought it as low as seven 

 dollars. 



j. r>. 



P. S. As it is satisfactory, and generally useful 

 to know all the circumstances attending an exper- 

 iment, I will mention that the lot on which my 

 grass grows is new land, on a ridge of pretty good 

 soil, with a growth of oak and hickory, in Fairfield 

 District. It is what we call clay soil mixed with 

 a good deal of feldspar stones; but sufficiently 

 silicious to be easy of cultivation. It, is shaded by 

 the natural growth of lofty oaks, &c, left stand- 

 ing about 50 and 60 feet apart. It has had no 

 manure except two annual supplies of cottonseed, 

 spread at the rate of two wagon loads (45 bushels 

 each) to the acre. The grass is flourishing and 

 profitable. 



J. D. 



From the Claremont National Eagle. 



CANADA PLUMS. 



The plum trees all over this section of the state 

 and in the adjoining parts of Vermont present a 

 most singular appearance. The fruit at this point 

 of the season, unless injured in some way, should 

 be about the size of a pea — perhaps not so large. 

 But, the fruit every where presents a most unnatu- 

 ral size, presenting rather the appearance of green 

 lemons than anything else we can remember, 

 swollen, wrinkled, and puffed up, some long, 

 others round, an inch long and nearly as thick. 

 They are of a bright green or yellow color, tinged 

 with a beautiful scarlet on the outside, while they 

 are completely empty within. This fruit — the 

 large red plum — in the natural course of vegeta- 

 tion is at this time, as we remarked, about the size 

 of a pea; and those who have plum trees, as there 

 are many on the Connecticut, are.exceedingly puz- 

 zled to account for this state of things. We had 

 a branch brought to this office from Cornish which 

 really has a very curious and singular appearance. 

 We are informed the trees have some ten years 



