130 APrENDIX. 



a stock sufficiently large to amass a great quantity of 

 manure. Consequently the crops of grain, and par- 

 ticularly of wheat were mu( h diminished. Indeed, 

 the wheat crops were trifling. Gypsum had been im- 

 ported, in small quantities before the revolution ; but 

 it was very little used, and very little talked of; and 

 that little not to its credit, for an old proverb, said to 

 have come from Germany, was brought up against it, 

 *^ that gypsum made rich fathers but poor sons.'' Not- 

 withstanding this prejudice, it was brought into gene- 

 ral use, some years after the war, by the persevering 

 efforts of a few, and principally of the President of 

 this Society, to whom future generations will render 

 thanks for this important service. Through the effi- 

 cacy of this fossil, the face of the country experienced 

 a magic change. The uplands were cloathed with 

 rich herbage, to which succeeded plenteous crops of 

 grain. I have not been able to trace with certainty, 

 the progress of the cultivation of clover aided by 

 gypsum, but I believe, that Philadelphia was the 

 centre, from which it spread in all directions. In 

 Chester county, so great were its effects, that (as I 

 heard it proved in the trial of a cause at West Ches- 

 ter,) the price of lands was doubled in a few years. 

 Nor is there any reason to suppose that it was less 

 beneficial in other places. 



