APPENDIX. 131 



But as the excess of even a good thing may be 

 peruicious, so may it be with gypsum. That it pro- 

 motes the growth of many vegetables, and of clover 

 in particular, is certain ; though its mode of operation 

 does not seem to be clearly understood. An increased 

 quantity of grass, will support an increased quantity 

 of stock, from which will proceed an increased quan- 

 tity of manure, and that should be considered as the 

 great end of gypsum. Not that great advantages may 

 not be derived from ploughing in the green clover. 

 But if that is relied on, as the only mode of meliora- 

 ting the soil, (and in some publications which I have 

 seen, it is asserted to be quite sufficient) we shall pro- 

 bably be disappointed. In Sir John Sinclair's Code 

 of Agriculture, it is said that the practice of plough- 

 ing in green vegetables, as a manure has been tried, 

 in England, and found not to answer; and that more 

 benefit is derived from those crops, when they are con- 

 sumed by stock, and converted into dung ; and Col. 

 John Taylor (of Caroline county, Virginia) to whose 

 valuable labours the world is so much indebted, is al- 

 so of opinion, that we ought not to rely on green veg- 

 etables only. In the first edition of his Arator, he 

 seemed to think, that nothing more was necessary 

 than clover, but in the second edition, he acknow- 

 ledged his error, which had been demonstrated by 



