58 On Gypsum. 



field, in ^vhichunplaistered wheat was sown. Where the 

 kind was sandy, the unplaistered wheat was best, owing 

 to the great growth of bird-loot clover among the plais- 

 tered. This discovered the eifect of gypsum on that an- 

 nual grass. Where this grass did not appear, there was 

 no difference between the plaistered and unplaistered 

 wheat. From the spring of 1806 to this time, the un- 

 plaistered slips have been distinctly marked, by a vast 

 inferiority of the weeds and grass naturally produced. 



November 23d. Sowed three bushels of plaister on 

 one and an half acres of wheat, left unplaistered for 

 the purpose in the field last mentioned, on the surface. 

 A^'eather moist. No effect on the wheat, on the ground, 

 or in the growth to this day, though the plaister was of 

 the same kind with that used in the last experiment. 



1806, March and April. Sowed 200 acres of clover 

 with plaister, at different times when the w^eather was 

 dry, moist, windy and still, part at three pecks — a 

 bushel and five pecks to the acre, leaving a slip of 

 20 feet wide across a field, to ascertain the goodness 

 of the plaister, which was of a hard white kind, 

 that hitherto used being soft and streaked. The clover 

 in this strip was bad, on each side of it, fine. No ap- 

 [)arent difference was produced by weather, quantity, 

 or times of sowing. The whole crop far surpassed in 

 goodness v»hatever such lands had produced before, 

 except the slip, as to which Pharaoh's dream seemed 

 reversed. 



April and May. Rolled all my seed corn as usual, 

 leaving slips unplaistered. An excessive drought. No 

 difference between these slips and the rest of the field. 

 The following year when that grass grew, tufts of luxu- 



