122 On Plaister of Paris, 



I do not discover any doubts on the subject of its 

 constantly ameliorating, instead of exhausting, the soil. 

 On the contrary, some of the facts are stronger in favour 

 of amelioration, than in my experience I have per- 

 ceived. Some allege that ground long plaistered ploughs 

 tough : so we often find it. The general opinion seems 

 to be, that its application in small quantities, even as 

 low as half a bushel to the acre, and frequent repeti- 

 tions, are best. They are much in the habit of ro/- 

 ling all their grain, for seed, in plaister. Their times 

 of application of top-dressings, are, in general, the same 

 with ours. Many Y^rtitx covering the plaister, after spread- 

 ing it over the whole field, in quantities of from one to 

 two and an half bushels per acre. There is an instance 

 of plaistering half a field of Indian corn when in tassel, 

 and its producing double the number of barrels of 

 of corn, compared with the crop in the unplaistered 

 moiety. On clover they esteem it most efficacious, but 

 they speak favorably of its effects on any kind of grass, 

 or grain ; and find its efficacy increased by a small ap- 

 plication of dung. They find, that seed potatoes cut 

 and plaistered, produce more abundantly. I have ex- 

 perienced the same effect. Lands producing, in their 

 exhausted state, only seven bushels of corn, and five of 

 wheat to the acre, have been made, by plaister alone with 

 clover crops, to bring 40 bushels of the former, and 30 

 of the latter, per acre ; and their fertility remains on the 

 advance. They mix various quantities of plaister with 

 their seed grain; from an half to a bushel of gypsum, to 5 

 and 6 bushels of grain. The grain is, as is done by us, 

 wetted or soaked previously. Some oi the Loudon farmers 

 think, as I do, that top dressing with plaister on wheat 



