18 On Plaister of Paris. 



Head your observations with each of the queries to 

 which they respectfully apply, and be pleased to favour 

 me with them as soon as your leisure will permit. 



I am, with sincere esteem, 



Your obedient servant, 



Richard Peters* 

 Mr. W. West. 



Query 1. How long have you used the plaister? 



Answer. About eleven years, without disappointment 

 in its effects. 



Query 2. What state was your land in when you 

 began the use of it ? 



.Answer, My land chiefly when I began to apply it, 

 though naturally of the first quality, had been nearly a 

 century under bad management, and tired down. I 

 ploughed up about five or six acres, and dressed it 

 with a rich earth about old buildings that grass had 

 grown over, and rotted it down in itself, and applied 

 about thirty loads to the acre, sowed it with winter 

 barley, the spring following with clover, the next spring 

 with plaister of Paris ; its product in grass was allowed 

 to be equal to any that had any where been seen. I 

 mowed it two summers, and have grazed it ever since, 

 and the sod is now in good perfection. I redressed it 

 last summer with plaister, and its stimulation very good; 

 the sod is green grass, white clover with a mixture of 

 red. This piece with a number of others, laid down in 

 grass with different kinds of manure, and plaistered, 

 will now feed as many cattle as acres, and from the 



