THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



9 



ly practical man, informed us, in a conversation 

 a few days since, that having read in the Planter 

 an account of the new mode of seeding grass, 

 practised in some parts of Massachusetts, and 

 highly recommended by the Editor of the 

 " Ploughman," he determined to try the experi- 

 ment. Accordingly, in the month of Septem- 

 ber, 1841, he inverted the sod of his old mea- 

 dows, and* harrowing the surface, he re sowed 

 his grass seed. The result was, that, in the 

 summer of 1842, he cut the finest crop of hay 

 (timothy and herdsgcass) that he ever took from 

 his land. He has abandoned, forever, the idea 

 of cleaning his meadows by the cultivation of 

 corn or any other hoed crop, the expense of 

 which is much greater, and the profit much less, 

 than of grass. 



Mr. Carter states that the turning under of 

 the sod had the singular effect of completely 

 smothering the natural and noxious growth, 

 whilst the timothy and herdsgrass put up through 

 it almost thick enough to prevent the necessity 

 of re-seeding. We confess we do not under- 

 stand the philosophy of this, but should rather 

 have feared the reverse ; but facts sometimes 

 laugh at philosophy, and Mr. Carter's statement 

 is corroborated by the evidence of many north- 

 ern farmers. 



There is no subject we take so much interest 

 in, ourselves, and none in which we more desire 

 to excite the interest of our readers, than the 

 cultivation of grass. Any information or com- 

 munication upon the subject, is, therefore, re- 

 ceived with peculiar favor. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH PLASTER AND 

 GYPSEOUS EARTH. 



The following report of experiments, made 

 by Dr. Robert Harrison, of Prince George, was 

 presented to the consideration of the Agricul- 

 tural Society at Garysville : 



" Whilst very discordant opinions prevail 

 amongst others as to the merits of Plaster, I 

 have uniformly found the happiest effects from 

 its use on my land. 



" In March, I selected two pieces of adjoining 

 land, believed to possess equal fertility ; the one 

 part was dressed with plaster, (sulp. of lime,) 

 in the proportion of one bushel to the acre — the 

 other had no application of any kind. The soil 

 was a loam adapted to the production of both 

 wheat and corn. The quantity of land selected 

 for experiment contained in each piece seven hun- 

 dred and eighty-four square yards. There was 

 Vol. 3-2 



soon evinced a rapid improvement in the appear- 

 ance and luxuriance of the plastered clover, 

 which continued to progress until it was fully 

 grown. At this time, the clover on each piece 

 -was neatly cut, suffered to wilt by exposure to 

 the sun, then put up in cocks ; the succeeding 

 day, the hay was opened, exposed to the atmos- 

 phere sufficiently to dry it, and the quantity on 

 each piece of land was weighed separately, and 

 afterwards housed with the following result: — 

 That portion, which had had a dressing of sul- 

 phate of lime, weighed 747 pounds, and the 

 other portion, without this application, 428 

 pounds. Thus, it is apparent, that by an outlay 

 of about fifty cents an acre, an additional pro- 

 duct was realized of almost two thousand pounds 

 of clover hay, besides an additional increased 

 quantity of vegetable matter in the roots, which 

 it is fair to infer were enlarged to produce the 

 more luxuriant and vigorous growth. This is 

 not a solitary instance of its value, but it is cor- 

 roborated by additional testimony in our vicinity. 



{: Experiment 2. At the bottom of my marl, 

 lies a tenacious, apparently homogenous sub- 

 stance, blue in appearance, and of a soapy cha- 

 racter, which I had applied as a top-dressing to 

 oats on land remarkably light. The amount 

 applied was not ascertained, but upon a rough 

 estimate I would say two hundred bushels per 

 acre. On adjoining land, of similar texture, al- 

 most a perfect sand bank, clay was applied in 

 the proportion of three hundred bushels per acre, 

 also as a top-dressing after the oats were seeded. 

 After these applications of clay and what I will 

 denominate gypseous earth, the land was sowed 

 with clover, and previously there w 7 as a growth 

 of the Eastern Shore bean, a plant sometimes 

 called the magadabay bean. Now for the result. 

 On the land that had been clayed, the clover 

 seemed to struggle for existence ; it was sickly 

 and pale and nearly all died, the past summer; 

 the bean grew but sparingly. On the land 

 which had received an application of gypseous 

 earth, the clover took finely, grew luxuriantly, 

 and surpassed in size and beauty any on the 

 farm. Soon after harvest, it was in bloom and 

 more than knee high. I must confess the result 

 surprised and also delighted me, and ihe effects 

 on the bean plant were equally gratifying, for 

 iis growth on this portion exceeded that on the 

 other, five if not ten times, both in size and 

 weight. 



"I am fully of the opinion, with which all of 

 my neighbors concur, that this earth produced 

 more beneficial effect, than would have succeeded 

 the application of an equal quantity of the best 

 rotted stable manure. This substance engaged 

 my attention about eight years ago, when 1 for- 

 warded a specimen of it to the Professor of Che- 

 mistry in Philadelphia, desiring its analysis. I 

 was informed, according to my recollection at 

 this moment, that it contained sulphate of iron, 



