On Plaister of Paris. 77 



Answer. 1 never found any beneficial effects from 

 strewing it on winter grdm.{^dj It is useful for all legu- 

 minous plants, (buckwheat, a bastard legume) flax, 

 hemp, rape, and other plants, whose seeds produce oil. It 

 is also beneficial for most products of the kitchen garden 

 and fruit trees ; Indian corn and turnips. Oat and barley 

 seed wet, and covered with as much plaister as will ad- 

 here to them, are much benefited. I have found little 

 or no ube in a top dressing of plaister, on either of these 

 latter grains. It is generally most profitably used for 

 red clover; though it will do excellent service to any 

 grass. ^ White clover, being the natural grass of most 

 countries, in certain soils, is most commonly thrown up 

 by plaister, (as it is by several other manures) though 

 there was no appearance of this grass before the appli- 

 cation. 



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



Answer, I have sown it in most seasons of the year. 

 If strewed in the fall, and a dry frosty winter succeeds, 

 much of the plaister is blown away. I have found it 

 answer well, if sown at any time from the beginning of 

 February to the middle of April, in misty weather. I 

 I have frequendy sown it on the snow in February, 



(dj See my remark on query 10th, which shews the opera- 

 tion on clover, so as to ruin the zvheat crop sozved with it. 



^ This assertion is too broad. I doubt its efficacy on 

 grasses, others than those of the treifoil tribe. At least there 

 are many grasses on which it has no effect. 



R. P. 



September^ 1810. 



