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Minutes of the Process and Result of sowing ofPlaister 

 of Paris, from the 3d of ApriL 1788, until the 5th of 

 May, 1795, by Algernon Roberts , of Merion Mont- 

 gomery County. 



Process. April Sd, 1788. Drizzly evening wind ar' 

 cast, moon's age twenty-five days ; sowed a half peck of 

 plaister upon twenty perches in the high field ; the 

 soil a light loam mixed with flinty gravel, in cultivation 

 at least four score years, without any manuring in my 

 memory. Sown with red clover seed the spring twelve- 

 months before sowing with plaister. 



Result. 1789. This spring a perceptible improvement; 

 the ground being subject to blue grass, and that not 

 sufficiently destroyed by cultivation, rendered the im- 

 provement trifling. 



Process. April Uh. Drizzly morning wind eastwardly, 

 moon's age twenty-six days, sowed eight bushels of 

 plaister upon two acres in the upper end of the young or- 

 chard ; the soil in part a stiff" and in part a light loam, 

 under stratum generally a stiff' clay, in tillage at least 

 sixty years. A few years previous to sowing with plais- 

 ter, limed at the rate of forty bushels per acre, and 

 manured at random with barn yard dung, say fifteen 

 cart loads per acre ; red clover and timothy seed sown 

 upon winter grain, both of which were much over-run 

 with blue grass. 



