160 On Gypsiwu 



important foundation, on which this extensive improve- 

 ment to our husbandry was estabUshed. With this, 

 Mr. Barge began the business of pulverizing the gyp- 

 sum^ first in an hand, and subsequent to this, in an horse 

 villi; and soon afterwards, it was carried on in a water 

 mill, in my neighbourhood. Such mills are now to be 

 found every where; brought to the highest state of per- 

 fection. When I had convinced myself of its efficacy, 

 I disseminated the knowledge I had acquired, through 

 many parts oS. P ennsylvama ; and sent samples to Jersey^ 

 New York, and I think, to Delaware (then called the 

 Loiver counties J and Maryland. But my success in ob- 

 taining credit to my assertions, or in procuring assist- 

 ance in prosecuting experiments ; w^as, for a length of 

 time, very limited, and discouraging. I had no con- 

 cern in the manufacture, or any other object in the com- 

 munications ; but one founded in a desire to propagate 

 a knowledge of this valuable acquisition. The person 

 who wrote from Germany to Mr. Barge, informed him 

 (with what correctness I know not) that the discovery 

 was then of no long standing in Germany : and that it 

 had been accidentally made by a labourer, employed in 

 m-ixing stucco mortar, at a large building. He saw that 

 the path used, or made, by him, in going from his work 

 to his cottage, threw up a luxuriant crop of clover, in 

 the succeeding season, when all other parts of the field 

 exhibited sterility. He attributed this extraordinary 

 vegetation, to the dust flying off his clothes ; and in con- 

 sequence of this idea, he strewed offals of the gypsum, 

 near his cottage. The effects astonished every specta- 

 tor ; and he received from the Edleman, or landlord, a 

 reward for divulging the secret. Whether this Ameru 



