126 On Plaister of Paris* 



unplaistered, for comparison. The crops, especially of 

 Indian corn, plaistered, yielded more than those on his 

 rich bottom land. But when not plaistered, the corn 

 was nearly worthless. 



Mr. Noland'^s farm, though adjacent to Col. Clap- 

 harn'Sy is not so much benefitted by plaister; and espe- 

 cially on Indian corn. Yet, having some years ago a 

 piece o{ tobacco, neglected, overcome by crab grass, and 

 not likely, from its appearance, to come to any thing, he 

 scattered plaister lightly, after dressing them, upon each 

 plant. The success was wonderful, and might be per- 

 ceived at a great distance. The crop was far superior to 

 tobacco unplaistered, on better land. Col. Clapham also 

 had similar success with tobacco plaistered ; and Mr. 

 Noland now constantly plaisters that plant, and never 

 fails to succeed. 



Mr. Abel Jennersy one of Mr. JVoland^s correspon- 

 dents, confirms what I have often observed, as to plais- 

 ter strewed on clay. The soil mentioned by Mr. Jen- 

 ners, must be similar to some of that on the Mount 

 Vernon estate. General Ifashington^s account of his 

 abortive experiments on such soil, will be seen in page 

 74. 



"To your second, I answer, — the first farm I went to 

 live on was very poor ; — the soil, a flat, white oak, 

 white, clay, — on which I used the plaister, in various 

 ways ; but found no advantage from the use of it. I 

 measured off one acre in an old field, on which I solv- 

 ed one bushel ; and near that a quaiter of an acre, on 

 which I sowed another bushel. I viewed this ground 



