122 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



PLASTER, OR GYPSUM. 



Many cultivators have expressed great surprise that 

 gypsum, or plaster of Paris, should operate favora- 

 bly as a manure on a piece of land for a number of 

 years, and then cease to have any effect. But we do 

 not regard this as at all surprising, for in the first 

 place we must consider that the soil is deficient in 

 the elements of which plaster is composed, else it 

 would not operate as a fertilizer, or a stimulant ; and 

 by applying it for several years this deficiency is 

 supplied, and further applications cease to produce 

 any beneficial effect. 



As plaster is composed of sulphate of lime, or a 

 combination of sulphur and lime, these ingredients 

 may be taken up into the plants, as they constitute a 

 part of most plants, though a small part ; and this 

 may account for a small quantity of plaster produ- 

 cing so powerful effects in the production of crops. 

 For although the amount of lime and sulj^hur is 

 generally very small in plants, yet that small amount 

 is absolutely necessary in their composition. 



When the soil has become saturated, or suffi- 

 ciently supplied with plaster, and no further appli- 

 cations are made for several years, the plaster may 

 become used up, in some measure, either by culti- 

 vated crops, or the spontaneous production of weeds, 

 grasses, bushes, &c. ; and then a new a^jplication may 

 again prove to be beneficial. Or plaster may have a 

 valuable effect on the soil, in preparing it to supply 

 food for plants, and after a few years this favorable 

 effect may cease until a further chemical change 

 takes place in the soil, which may, after a while, 

 become a slow process, so that years will pass away 

 before plaster will again act as a manure. 



We have in nature a great many analogous cases. 

 Sand may be added to a clayey soil until there is 

 sand enough, and it ceases to be useful ; but after a 

 long course of cropping with corn, herdsgrass, red- 

 top, and small grains, a large amount of silex or 

 sand is taken up in solution, and a new addition of 

 sand would be beneficial. An animal may bo in 

 great want of salt, or some other condiment, and it 

 may be given until it is no longer useful. After 

 a while, the condition of the animal may require 

 another supply. 



These remarks may explain some of the facts 

 offered in the following interesting article from the 

 Dollar Newspaper. 



Gypsum and Clover. — For the last seventeen 

 years, my attention has, to some extent, been directed 

 to the peculiarity of the different soils of this and 

 the adjoining counties of Maryland. Much atten- 

 tion has been bestowed on the various modes of 

 improving the soil, more particularly by the use of 

 clover and plaster of Paris. This having been the 

 favorite system for the last twenty years, and indeed 

 long before that time, no other course was considered 

 at all reasonable. I well recollect of seeing in nearly 

 every part of our country the most luxuriant field's 

 of clover, rising at least two feet or more from the 

 surface of the land, therefore furnishing the soil 

 with a most splendid covering, sufficient, when 

 ploughed under, to enrich the soil, to make it produce 

 the finest growth of cotton, corn, wheat, or tobacco. 

 Since the time first alluded to, there has been a very 

 general complaint that ovu' lands were not half so 



valuable as they were first supposed to be, in conse- 

 quence of our fields not possessing the capacity of 

 yielding their former crops of clover. One man asks 

 another why this should be so. What has done all 

 this mischief? And, strange to say, no two individuals 

 can agree. Well, now, as we have neither the Ural 

 Mountains of Kussia nor the mountains of New 

 Mexico or California to resort to to enrich our soils, 

 let us be content to use such means as may be within 

 our power to effect this most desirable object. 



It is a fact not to be questioned, that land which 

 once produced fhic crops of clover, when accompanied 

 with gypsum or plaster, will now scarcely produce 

 any ; at least, will not when clover and plaster have 

 been regularly used for seven or eight years. Now, 

 my principal object is to learn, why is all this ? Is 

 the land tii'cd of cultivation ? Or isit that the gyp- 

 sum is adulterated, and its properties useless to the 

 application of clover? I think not. I believe too 

 much has been infused into the earth. I cannot 

 suppose the clover can in any way be detrimental to 

 the soil. It must be the bad effects of the plaster ; 

 for who doubts for a moment that its effects are 

 various, and there are principles which have been 

 discovered, by which its influence has been traced ? 

 Some salutarj' correction is needed ; but what that 

 remedy is, I am at a loss to conjecture. Ho alone who 

 is familiar with chemistry, and can analyze the soil, 

 can point out the constituents necessary to correct 

 the evil. There is, to my mind, a most mysterious 

 agency in plaster as well as lime, and he who can 

 explain it is a benefactor. Can its advantages or dis- 

 advantages be owing to the chemical character of the 

 soil, or the kind and quality of vegetation thereon 

 produced ? We not unfrequently complain that the 

 land is worthless, it is exhausted ; and verily we can- 

 not explain what we mean. For myself, I plead 

 ignorance. I will state, however, a few circum- 

 stances which have come under my personal observa- 

 tion. I discontinued the use of gypsum on my clover 

 land for nearly five yeai's, believing, when I again 

 commenced its use, that the best results would ac- 

 company the experiment ; and so they turned out. 

 My most sanguine expectations have been more than 

 realized. 



I sowed, this season, (1848,) forty bushels of clover 

 seed, and the most competent judges have affirmed 

 that it has never fallen to their lot to witness a more 

 luxuriant crop of young clover, the greater part of 

 which was bedded, which is very unusual. The 

 entire field was well plastered, and when a row 

 happened to escape the action of the plaster, the 

 clover was small and pun}'. Now, I will venture a 

 prediction, should plaster be regularly applied, say 

 for the next five years, that this very land will not 

 produce clover sufficient to make even good grazing. 

 It must now be admitted that I have opened a wide 

 and extended field of inquiry, on a subject which is 

 entitled to at least some consideration from an intelli- 

 gent agricultural community, without attempting to 

 explain the i)roperties of the mineral mostly used, or 

 without any attempt at analysis of the different soils 

 Ave have to cultivate, for the best reason — my ex- 

 perience in a theoretical point of view does not 

 justify it. What I have obtained has been from 

 long experience, certainly not from theory. What 

 we require is science, fully devcloijcd through chem- 

 istry ; and not till then can the occtipation of the 

 farmer rise to that elevated position so necessary for 

 him to occupy, and which it should be his object to 

 acquire. 



• "♦ 



THE GRAPE. 



At the Farmers' Club, which meets monthly, in 

 the city of New York, for the purpose of discussing 

 various agricultural subjects, Dr. XJnderhill made the 



