071 Gypsum. 237 



cause there '' is enough in the land,'^ or in the animal 

 manure, or grasses, precedently. Yet xue find that it 

 will, and often will not, operate, where there is no pro- 

 bability of any similar substance having been ; owing 

 to manure, or other cause he assigns. — In the barren- 

 est and worn fields ; destitute of almost every living 

 plant : and sometimes it fails, or succeeds, on grounds 

 of the opposite description. If there be enough (as he 

 supposes) to nourish a meager grass ; yet, we find, 

 adding more, will make a starved plant vigorous ; or 

 substitute a better in its place. And if there " be 

 enough in the land,'' or " in the plant ;" why does the 

 one remain steril, and the other starved ? 



If it be true, as some allege, that dew, in great pro- 

 portion, rises out of the ground ; and there be '' enough 

 Gypsum already in the soil ;'' why does it not over- 

 balance the trifling addition superficially spread ; and 

 detain the dew, or moisture, from rising-? If the gyp- 

 sum spread be, (as the fact of superficial moisture, 

 drawn out, non obstante the alleged gypsum in the 

 earth, seems to designate,) differently composed from 

 that in the soil ; one can account for the circumstance. 

 I never saw plastered ground, which did not exhibit 

 profuse moisture, superficially. Whatever kinds of 

 calcareous, or other, matter, be in the soils of other 

 countries, are to be found in our ground ; notwith- 

 standing any opinion to the contrary. It is in this, 

 and every other, respect, like the soils of odier parts 

 of our globe, almost infinitely various. This conjec- 

 ture seems, therefore, quite as inexplicable and the- 

 oretical, as any other can be. 



He denies its septic faculty, or capacity to promote 



