On Plaister of Paris. 79 



Query, 9. What is the greatest product of grass per 

 acre, you have known by the means of plaister? 



Answer, As much as from any other manure. I 

 I never weighed, or kept an exact account. I think I 

 have had five tuns per acre, at two cuttings, in one 

 season ; and I have sometimes cut a third crop; though 

 I seldom do this, as I prefer feeding the third growth. 

 The hay is in my opinion better than that produced by 

 dung. The cattle waste less of it. I have dunged part 

 of a field and plaistered the residue. The cattle and 

 horses will reject the grass on the dunged part, while 

 they can get the smallest bite off that plaistered. I have 

 never desired over luxuriant crops of grass. The hay 

 of these is not so nutritive as that of a moderate growth. 

 The stock will not consume it to advantage, though I 

 often salt it. I am content if I get a tun and an half, at a 

 cutting on the acre. This will stand well to the scythe, 

 and does not, like over luxuriant grass, die, rot, or 

 become feculent and musty at the root. 



Query 10. Have you ever used it on ground dressed 

 with other manure, and what? and the effects if any 

 superior to the plaister alone? 



Answer. The answers to five and six comprehend, 

 for the most part, what I have to say on this query. 

 In England, it is said the plaister fails \vhere the " land 

 has been limed :(f) that it operates best on virgin soils^ 



(f) It is said in a late English publication, that the gypsum 

 chieRy consists of a mineral acid and a calcareous- Sarth ; 

 and as the one or the other prevails, it is good or bad. 



^ See note page, 48. 



