WASTE LANDS. 189 



taiii pasture land by barnyard manure, seems impracticable, on 

 account of its great cost. But if it can be improved by the 

 application of plaster, at seventy-five cents per acre, once in two 

 or tliree years — quite as much as by a dressing- of yard manure 

 worth ten dollars to the acre — the owners of such pasture will 

 try the experiment. 



That part of my land, which is most improved by plaster, is 

 a steep, rocky mountain slope, where there has been only one 

 attempt at ploughing during the past fifty-five years. This was 

 abortive or non-paying. It is a fact established to my own sat- 

 isfaction, that plaster can be used to good profit on some pasture 

 land, such as Mettawampee mountain land. It is equally well 

 established that it cannot be profitably used on granite land. 

 It now remains to be ascertained, whether my Mettawampee 

 land can be enriched from year to year by plaster, and how 

 much can be profitably applied to the acre. My observation 

 indicates two or three hundred pounds. 



Leverett, October 15, 1857. 



Statement of P. N. Richards. 



I had three acres of pasture in Sunderland, very light and 

 sandy soil, which produced nothing but a stinted growth of 

 blackberry vines. It has been reclaimed by me. In the autumn 

 of 1853, 1 dressed the most sterile parts with clay, spread evenly 

 over the surface and so left exposed to the frost of the winter, 

 that it might slack and mix more freely w'ith the soil. During 

 the winter following, I drew on forty cords of muck, and left it 

 in beds of such thickness as to allow it to be thoroughly frozen. 

 In the spring, I drew on sixteen and one half cords of barn- 

 yard manure, forty bushels of ashes and fifty-six bushels of 

 shell lime unslacked, and five hundred pounds of gypsum, and 

 thoroughly mixed with the muck. I overhauled the compost 

 when it had become sufficiently warm to generate gases and 

 spread on more gypsum to prevent their escape. I then spread 

 and ploughed under one-half of the compost and harrowed in 

 the remainder. 



I planted corn, putting in the hill seventy-six bushels of 

 leached ashes, and nine bushels of oyster shell lime, well mixed. 

 My crop was good, but was much injured by the severe drought 



