42 On Plaister of Pans, 



Answer. I began with six bushels, but gradually less- 

 ened the quantity to one; and findingthe immediate effect 

 not materiall}' (if at all) different, now put on only one, 

 and repeat it every other or third year, supposing more 

 produce is obtained from the same quantity in this way. 



Query 4. What soils are the most proper for this 

 manure ? 



Ansiver. Dry loams. I have tried it on wet clay with- 

 out effect, though I have found its effects on the banks 

 of watered meadows considerable; it does better on hilly 

 than level land, perhaps because it is dry and lighter. 



Qiiery 5. Have you repeated the application of it witli 

 or without ploughing? — in what manner? — at what 

 intervals, and with what effect ? 



Answer. I have repeated it on meadow and clover 

 ever}^ other or third year with good effect, and sown it 

 several times on the same land, after ploughing, without 

 observing its effects to decline : in the last instance the 

 land was dunged ; in the former it w^as not. 



Query 6. Do you find that it renders the earth sterile 

 after its useful effects are gone ? 



Answer. No, quite the reverse ; nor do I believe ^ny 

 kind of manure has this effect; though hard cropping of 

 land, dressed with lime, has given rise to this opinion.*" 



*I was deceived in my first applications of lime^ by being told 

 that lime Will spend itseli as much without cropping, as with 

 constant successions. I over cropped, without then knowing- 

 its mischief. Lime spends itselt, as it is called, by exhausting 

 the vegetable matter in the earth, and nothing is more inju- 

 rious than hard croppmg, with lime : bad enough with any 

 manures. I mean grain crops. R. P. 



September 1810. 



