On Plaister of Paris. 43 



^ Query 7. To what products can it be best applied ? — 

 grain and what kinds ? — grasses and what kinds ? 



Answer. I have used it most on red clover, and know 

 no crop which it improves so much ; it does very well 

 on white clover and mixed grasses, but not equally so 

 as on red clover. 1 have tried it on Indian corn with 

 different degrees of success. It enlarges the plant J think 

 more than the produet of the cor?!.^ On wheat, rye, Sec. 

 if it did any good, it was very trifling. 



Query 8. When is the best time to scatter it ? 



Answer. This may be done at any season, but as it 

 operates quickly, the least time is lost by putting it on 

 when vegetation is coming on rapidly in the spring, or 

 «oon after mowing the first crop. 



* I have sometimes suspected this to be the case, but have 

 never been able exactly to ascertain the fact. In some seasons 

 I have had very large, and in others moderately sized ears of 

 plants, which appeared equally vigorous. The plant gets the 

 greater part of its growth before the ears begin to set. I have 

 supposed that its earing, well or ill, depended not so much 

 on^ the plaister, as upon previous culture; and season and 

 other circumstances at the time the ears are forming and 

 filling. Let the ears in any particular season be smaller or 

 larger than usual with plaistered corn, they are always better 

 than those on rows left unplaistered in the same field.f 



R. P. 



t My practice now is to scatter the plaister over the whole field (two busliels to the acre) and 

 harrow it in. I also dust a little on the plants when young-, at the first dressing. I find the roots 

 coming in contact, thi-oughout the field, with the gypsum (opei-ating on the putrefied substances^ 

 and supplying food and moisture) has much greater tfficacy, 



R. P. 



September 1810. 



