On Gypsum* 61 



sowing it broadcast among Indian corn after it is 

 up, may improve the crop 25 per cent : that sown in 

 June it may not improve English grass ; that sown in 

 August and covered, it may improve the land, though 

 drought succeeds ; that sown on wheat in November, 

 it may neither benefit the wheat nor land ; that about 

 three pecks to the acre immediately sprinkled on clover 

 seed sown on the surface, may cause it to come up, live, 

 and thrive better ; that a similar quantity sown on the 

 surface in March may treble the burden of bird-foot 

 clover ; that sown broadcast from the 1st of January in 

 breaking up or listing corn ground, the same quantity 

 will probably add considerably to the crop ; and that it 

 may not improve the high land meadow oat if sown in 

 February. 



I have witheld experiments tending to prove the uti- 

 lity of combining enclosing with the use of gypsum, 

 because they are yet defective ; and some others, on ac- 

 count of the length of this letter. 



If my poor experiments can in the least degree ad- 

 vance the laudable design of your institution, I shall be 

 always willing both to communicate them, and that you 

 should either select extracts, or suppress them as you 

 please. I expect this year to complete a project for drain- 

 ing 200 or 300 acres of land, subject to tide water, musk- 

 xats, and a creek having two mills on it above. It is a 

 considerable work for a farmer, and has been conduct- 

 ed at very little expence. Would a circumstantial ac- 

 count of it be agreeable, should it succeed ? 



I have been obliged to use the common names of se- 

 veral grasses, from an ignorance of the botanical. Some 

 of them have not I believe been named by the adepts 



