202 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



the clover in the usual way, and plastering on the surface. 

 The action of the plaster, thus excluded from atmospheric 

 air, upon the clover, covered over, is instantaneous, and the 

 putridity is so certain as to cause considerable gas, which in 

 its passage through the clod impregnates it with all its ma- 

 nuring qualities, and the root of the plant shoots down and 

 feeds on a bed of manure."^ 



A writer for the New England Farmer, vol. ii. p. 10, 

 states in substance as results of his experience, that plaster 

 was found by him to be useful as manure, after having been 

 kept on hand in a box seven years; that its beneficial effects 

 on pasture land are very great. He sows it on the same 

 piece of ground every second year, and thinks five or six 

 pecks to an acre are sufficient ; that his pasturing is essen- 

 tially improved by that application, producing nearly double 

 the quantity of food which it formerly did ; that sowing 

 plaster on his grazing land had a tendency to destroy the 

 bushes, by giving increased luxuriance to the grass ; that this 

 manure has been found very useful for flax and potatoes, &c. 



Dr. Cooper, editor of the last Philadelphia edition of 

 Willich's Domestic Encyclopedia, says, ' Gypsum will not 

 answer beyond two and a half bushels to the acre ; one and 

 a half bushel is better. It will not answer on wet or 

 swampy, or clayey soils. It should be scattered over the 

 ground as a top-dressing. Suppose you were asked if a 

 stone brought you is gypsum. 1. Gypsum can be scratched 

 by the nail, scraped by a knife, ground by the teeth. 2. It 

 will not dissolve in spirits of salt as limestone will : nor is 

 it half so hard as limestone. 3. Its color and crystalline 

 appearance distinguish it from clay ; nor does it give a clayey 

 odor when breathed upon, unless clay be mixed with it. 4. 

 Powder it, boil it to dryness, with four times its weight of 

 pot or pearlash. Wash out all that the hot water will dis- 

 solve ; the remaining powder (if the stone be gypsum) is car- 

 bonate of lime.' 



Gypsum has been highly recommended as a manure for 

 potatoes. The potatoes, just before planting, should be wet 

 and rolled in pulverized plaster ; and a handful of plaster 

 applied immediately after the first and second hoeing to the 

 leaves, and scattered over the hill. 



A writer for the Genesee Farmer, with the signature 

 Onondago, observes, ' Plaster is always to be sown on wheat 



* American Farmer. 



