On Plaister of Paris. 75 



tinued on the ground in, the smallest degree. I have 

 heard of some instances to the contrary, but none have 

 fallen under my observation. 



Query, 5. Have you repeated the application of it 

 with or without ploughing? — at what intervals, and 

 with what effects ? 



Query, 6. do you find that it renders the earth ste- 

 rile after its useful effects are gone ? 



Answer. 1 have beneficially repeated the application 

 with and without ploughing; but I succeed best in a 

 repetition after cultivating, and dressing slightly with sta- 

 ble manure, or with ploughing in green manures. I have 

 ploughed in buckwheat in full blossom (which in a fort- 

 night or three weeks, often in less time, becomes putrefi- 

 ed and converted into excellent manure, having under- 

 gone a violent fermentation) and sowed winter grain, on 

 which I have sowed clover seed; and having strewed 

 plaister on the clover, similar, if not greater effects, 

 have been produced than were received from the first 

 dressing. Ploughing in clover affords a pabulum for 

 the plaister, which fails often in mellow grounds in fine 

 tilth, where the putrefi d substances are scarce, or have 

 been exhausted by ploughing and frequent exposure. 

 In short, 1 find it must have something to feed on, as 

 some farmers express it. In the first application, it has 

 the decayed roots of vegetable substances it finds in the 

 earth. I perceive no greater degree of sterility after 

 plaister, than after dung. All manures are stimulants, 

 and leave the earth wearied and vapid, from the exer- 

 tions they have excited. Stable dung as bad as any if 



