50 MANURES. 



vastly greater than to any other crop, clover excepted, while 

 its benefit to the land is equally great." 



All crops are ultimately improved by its improving the 

 soil, even when its effects are not immediately visible. It is 

 recommended as a top-dressing for clover, only, by Col. TAY- 

 LOR; but others, who speak with great confidence, say that it 

 is appropriate to the artificial grasses and leguminous plants. 

 It has also been known to improve materially the sward of 

 mossbound pasture. It is recommended to harrow it in with 

 oats, when applied to that crop, in preference to sowing on the 

 surface after they are up. 



It has been fully ascertained by repeated experiments, that 

 a liberal application of plaster to clover at the time of turning 

 down and preparing for a wheat crop, is far more beneficial to 

 the crop, and much preferable to turning in the clover in the 

 usual way and plastering on the surface. 



The action of the plaster upon the clover thus covered over, 

 and thereby excluded from the influence of the atmosphere, is 

 instantaneous; and the putridity is so certain as to cause con- 

 siderable gas, which in its passage impregnates the sod with 

 all its fertilizing qualities, while the roots shoot down and feed 

 on a bed of manure. 



It is usually sown by the hand, at the time when the leaves 

 of the clovers and other plants begin to cover the surface; and 

 the operation is performed, if possible, during still damp or 

 slightly stormy weather, it being beneficial that the leaves 

 should be somewhat moistened, so as to retain a portion of the 

 dust. The effect of this slight application is felt for several 

 years. It should be ground in fair or good weather, and spread 

 shortly after; and it may be sown either in spring or autumn, 

 but vegetation must have first put forth. An old cultivator 

 says that when clover seed is sown clear from the hull without 

 covering, it ought to be rolled in plaster, and it will preserve 

 it in a moist state and promote its vegetation. 



HI. MARL. 



No form of matter whatever, known to us at this time, is 

 more valuable in agriculture, in the regions where it abounds, 

 than rich marl, which in some one of its forms is widely dis- 

 seminated over our country, stretching from New Jersey to 

 Georgia and Louisiana, and from the seaboard to the highlands, 

 or primitive formations in the interior. The existence of ex- 

 haustless stores of this fertilizer of the soil in New Jersey, and 



