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In Sandisfield, a farmer whose premises and stock, bespeak skil- 

 ful and excellent management, and whose fellow citizens have deem- 

 ed him year after year, well quali6ed to assist in the management of 

 the state farm, has found plaster applied alone of doubtful utility ; 

 but plaster applied with manure highly beneficial. Ashes and lime 

 intermixed with manure have proved very beneficial to pasture 

 lands. Leeched ashes have been applied with great success to land, 

 which the year previous has been in potatoes and manured for that 

 crop. 



Two of the best grain farmers in the county in Sheffield, mix 

 plaster with their manure to great advantage ; and are in the habit of 

 applying ashes in the spring upon their winter grain. They plaster 

 their corn on the hill twice in the season. 



A farmer in Sheffield, whose husbandry is admirable, uses plaster 

 to great advantage on alibis crops; and deems it of much importance 

 that it should be applied early and just as the crops are coming out 

 of the ground. 



The marls found in the county have not as yet proved as effica- 

 cious as was expected. They have been tried upon potatoes, corn, 

 and wheat, but with indifferent success. Some disappointment at 

 first was not surprising both from inexperience in the mode of appli- 

 cation ; and because from the nature of the substance a permanent 

 rather than a sudden improvement was expected. 



A farmer of Lee, ^vhose observations are careful and intelligent, 

 made various experiments with this substance. The marl, to which 

 he had access, contained of soluble geine 2.6 of insoluble, 3.4 of 

 phosphate of lin)e, 1 .2 of carbonate of lime, 86.2 of granitic sand, 5.0 

 of water of absorption 1.6. The land to which it was applied was a 

 rich gravelly loam. Of potatoes six rows through the whole piece 

 were marled in the hill ; a shovel full in each hill. The rows above 

 them were not manured. The rows below them were manured with 

 barn manure. The first part of the season he considered the marled 

 rows as decidedly the best. In August, when I went into the field, 

 they were not so promising as those manured with barn manure ; and 

 were not upon the whole better than those by the side of them without 

 manure. He writes me since the harvest, " that he cannot say that 

 he has seen as yet much benefit from his marl, though his potatoes 

 were somewhat better for the use of it. " 



