78 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. -Jg, 1820. 



little, weighing 43J per cent, less in water than 

 out. On calcining these three samples to a red 

 heat, they weighed nearly alike, viz. 754 grains, 

 losing about '2l)s or 22 per cent, which is more 

 than Cliaptal mentions of the French plaster stone, 

 whicli he says loses nearly 20 per cent. 



I have heard that the white kind was hoiled 

 briskly in some other experiments, which also 

 shows the great variety of it ; however, the only 

 author I have seen that describes an unfertilizing 

 kind, is the " Pennsylvania Farmer :" he says, that 

 which feels rougii or gritty to the touch has done 

 his land no good, while that which has a soft feel- 

 ing has doubled the value of hia land. Though 

 this observation c orresponds with the recollection 

 and observation I have made on a parcel I tried 

 without success, and of the white which is men- 

 tioned, tliat did not boil, yet I am not certain but 

 even this kind on some land may be productive, 

 and I wish not to discourage further experiments 

 of it. This hard kind is said to be the best for 

 stucco or plaster work, for which purpose it must 

 be calcined, which Peters says, lessens, if not des- 

 troys its agricultural use, but doctor Darsvin ap- 

 prehends it would increase it ; which I mention, 

 that Peters' opinion (being one of the first and 

 largest writers of experience on the use of the 

 gypsum) may not prevent further experiments, to 

 decide this as well as other diversity of sentiments 

 On the subject of this highly useful manure.* 



As it is generally understood, by those who 

 have looked into the subject, that the gypsum is 

 not used as a manure in England, and this has 

 been mentioned in support of the idea of the sea 

 air's destroying its use as such, I will mention 

 some facts to remove this error. It appears by 

 Willich's Encyclopedia, and from the Bath and 

 West of England Society, that " sandy land strew- 

 ed with gypsum was more productive than tlie 

 same kind of land covered two inches with stable 

 manure." Although there, as well as in this coun- 

 try, it does not succeed in all sorts of land, yet, 

 says Willich, for chalky and dry calcareous lands 

 its superiority has been clearly evinced over every 

 other manure. And Young, in his Annals of llus- 

 "bandry, says, oats prepared for sowing, with one 

 bushel of gypsum mixed with eight of oats, after 

 they were wet in water before sowing, exceeded 

 ■in their produce twenty-six bushels, that of an 

 equal quantity with many other previous prepara- 

 tions ; and it appears they, as well as those of ex- 

 perience in this country, prefer sowing the gyp- 

 sum previous to rains, as thereby it is thought its 

 efficacy is considerably increased. Kirwan gives 

 it as his opinion, that clay soils were more improv- 

 ed by gypsum than calcareous earths, which with 

 other similar observations, being opposed by other 

 writers, should excite the farmer to experiments ; 

 for the proverb is perhaps in no instance more 

 clearly verified, that " experience is better than 

 science," than in the subject of gypsum as a ma- 

 nure. Indeed, our imperfect knovvledge of its 

 mode of action, the proportionate value of the sev- 



* If we recollect rightly, sonpe English writer 

 or writers on the subject of gypsum assures us 

 that its being calcined makes no difference in its 

 effects as manure. They say that the sulphuric 

 acid in gypsum, on which it* fertili?ing quality is 

 thougiit chiefly to depend cannot be expelled by 

 the most violent heat of the fumrice. You can 

 only drive off the water, which it soon acquires 

 again from the atmosphere. — Editor JV.E. Farmer. 



eral varieties, the proper application as to the 

 quantity and seasons, and the varieties of soils as 

 well as of plants, require the experience and ob- 

 servation of farmers as well as the investigation 

 of science. 



From the little experience I have had for the 

 last four years, on lands lying within forty rods of 

 the salt water, where the tide regularly ebbs and 

 flows ; on a nearly level plain, about forty feet 

 above the level of high watermark, of a poor 

 sandy soil, such as we have found highly benelit- 

 ed by the use of live ashes as well as leaclied, as 

 a manure for Indian, corn, for which such land 

 seems i.iost suitable, I have found the gypsum 

 rather better than the best ashes: when a hand- 

 ful of tlie hitter, and a table spoonful of the former 

 have been applied to the hills, side by side, on 

 husking and weighing an equal number of hills of 

 each, the corn has been about five pounds in one 

 hundred hills, the heaviest for three years succes- 

 sively, on different fields, adjoining other land, on 

 which I put gypsum ten years ago without per- 

 ceiving the least benefit. 



This year I have had fresh proof of the useful- 

 ness of the gypsum, as a manure for Indian corn. 

 I planted an oblong field, on which my people cart- 

 ed, spread, and ploughed in my hog manure, as 

 has been iny custom for .several years, on these 

 light lands. At planting time I ordered the prin- 

 cipal part of the seed corn soaked, and as much 

 plaster put among it as would stick to the grains, 

 and so planted it. When it came up it showed a 

 stronger color than that planted without any gyp- 

 sum, as we had before several years observed. — 

 After weeding, our practice has been to put ashes 

 on part, and the gypsum on part of the field ; but 

 this year, not having collected any ashes, in confi- 

 dence that the plaster was at least as good, we 

 used littU or none, but put on all the plaster we 

 had, which extended over about half the field ; 

 soon after hilling, this half appeared to have near- 

 ly doubled the herbage of the other half. I sought 

 and found more plaster, and ordered a table spoon- 

 ful on one part, and a heaped tea spoonful on the 

 other part, not plastered before, except a small 

 part left for experiment without any : this was on 

 the twenty-fourth of the si.xth month, called June, 

 when I also ordered a bushel to be sown broad 

 cast on a measured acre of tliat part of the field 

 which we first plastered. On the same day we 

 were favored with a refreshing shower of rain ; 

 after which, as I passed by the field, I took notice 

 there was no appearance of the gypsum, which be- 

 fore was very visible. The result of thir. experi- 

 ment has been, that the corn at harvest, on the 

 end plastered on the twenty-fourth of the sixth 

 month, was nearly, if not quite, equal to that plas- 

 tered at weeding time ; and the acre on which the 

 bushel was strewed, as mentioned above, produc- 

 ed about 23 bushels more than an acre adjoining, 

 by calculation after weighing an equal number of 

 hills of each. The increase of the crop by means 

 of the gypsum, appears to be 8:5- bushels to an acre 

 on that which was twice plastered, and ^i bushels 

 on that once plastered, more than that not pl.ister- 

 ed after the corn came up ; the field as nearly 

 equal as perhaps any field ; the season has been 

 good. 



It appears by an experiment reported to the 

 Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, that 90 bush- 

 els of Indian corn was r.-'ised there on an acre, by 

 means of a table spoonful of gyjisum to each hill, 

 put on after the first dressing. Whether this dif- 



ference is owing to the sort of gypsum, l!ie soil, 

 situation, or season, is uncertain, perhaps either 

 may be suificient to account for the increase of ji 

 that in Pennsylvania. > 



Since harvest, on inquiry, I find some other 

 farmers in this and New York State, have been ia 

 th3 practice for several years of putting a heaped 

 tea spoonful on a hill, two and three times during 

 the growing of the corn, with equally as evident 

 an advantage the two last times as the each first, 

 showing its effects in the vigor, color, and growth 

 of the corn, as well as the filling of the ears 

 last ; and some say,the color and growth is perceiv- 

 abiy improved in fifteen days. Some of these I 

 have mentioned say, that sowing the gypsum over- 

 the field answers as well as putting it on the hill, 

 though it is, as far as I learn, most generally put: 

 on tlie hill by children. 



I am lately informed of an observation of an in- 

 genious farmer on the western sound, which, as I 

 think it worthy a trial, I mention it — That the 

 sowing or putting on the gypsum in a northerly 

 wind renders it more productive, and prevents the 

 supposed bad effects of the marine acid which ac- 

 companies our southerly or sea winds. Though 

 this to some ma}' appear chimerical, when I first 

 heard it mentioned, my mind was led to consider 

 and compare the observations of Doctor Home andH 

 other writers on the food of plants, and their com^f 

 parison of the exposure of the earthy materials inwl 

 the making of nitre to a northerly wind, as being ^ 

 much more productive than when exposed to a ij 

 southerly wind. If the sea air, or marine acid, is f 

 an injury to the use of the gypsum, it being first <{ 

 saturated wiih a nitrous air, may prove a remedy, -i 

 The gypsum being powerful in attracting and re- 

 taining moisture, and perhaps the very gas that is 

 a food of plants, when it comes within the sphere '"■' 

 of its attraction or affinity with it, and the land y 

 winds containing more of this than the sea winds, 

 an imperfect theory may be thus assigned, for the t 

 curious observation mentioned. 



I have tried the gypsum on potatoes, and it has * 

 proved not only productive in quantity, but improv- >■ 

 iiig in quality ; and it has appeared to be useful to ^, 

 various garaen vegetables. My clover this year ■• 

 on my plains, wliere I have sown only the plaster >}'■ 

 for grass, has been more productive than I have 

 experienced before ; but it having been a very 

 seasonable year for such land as to rains, further " 

 experience on this article is required, before I can 

 say much about it, thougl) I doubt not its useful- '■ 

 ness on the same fields on which I used it success- , 

 fully when in corn. 1 



Some writers have supposed the European gyp- 

 sum better than the American, but the experience 

 I liave had is the reverse ; and from the great va- 

 rieties in Europe as v/ell as America, 1 conclude 

 ours is as good as theirs for manure ; for perliaps 

 no part of the world receives a greater advantage 

 from the gypsum as a manure, tlian, according to 

 accounts, the States of Virginia, Pennsylvania and 

 New York, when the Nova Scotia plaster is used 

 tliere. 



I am told by our coasting masters, that in Vir- 

 ginia their old uorn out land whicii produced about' 

 eight bushels of wiieat to the acre, are, by the use 

 of the gypsum, brought to produce twenty. In 

 Pennsylvania and New York they estimate their 

 land, suitable for the use of that valuable manure, 

 to have been thereby doubled in value. Shall New 

 Kugland, which abounls with this highly useful 

 article, for want of proper perseverance in experi- 



/ 1. 



