106 On the Draught of Ploughs. 



more practical men^ who were present, still gave it rather in 

 favour of Ransome's, which also appeared quite equal to it in 

 lightness of draught ; but as this is different from the result of 

 your trials, I am inclined to attribute it to the single wheel. It 

 was next tried in a stiff clajj which had been ploughed before, 

 against one of the iron ones ; here also it was considered to do its 

 work equally well, and retain its superiority in lightness, for it 

 drew only 15 stone, while the iron one was 23 stone. We made 

 some other trials, the precise results of which I do not now re- 

 member; but on the whole. Hart's plough, with the altered 

 mouldboard, was considered to make good work, and to possess the 

 merit of lightness to the horses, in a high degree, compared with 

 the common ploughs of the county ; and I have found two small 

 brisk ponies do more work in the day with either this or Ran- 

 some's than strong horses with the common plough, and ap- 

 parently with as little exertion ; and if any one wishes to try it 

 with this mouldboard it may be had, so made, of Mr. Cottam in 

 London, or Mr. Marychurch in Haverfordwest. 



I have the honour to be. Sir, 



Yours very obediently, 



Trelawny Freeman. 



Easthook, Haverfordwest, S. IVales. 

 September, 24, 1840. 



XIV. — An Account of the Application of Gypsum as a Manure 

 to the Artificial Grasses. Bv Cuthbert William Johnson, 

 Esq. 



a prize-essay. 



It is useless to search in the works of the early agricultural writers 

 for any notice of the employment of gypsum as a manure. It is 

 true that Virgil speaks of the value of a very impure variety of it, 

 when he is commending the use of ashes to the Roman farmers. 

 The early inhabitants of Britain thus used it ; the farmers of 

 Lombardy did the same : but ages elapsed before even chemists 

 were able to distinguish this salt from limestone, or other calca- 

 reous matter. Its uses, in its simple state as a manure, were first 

 noticed, according to Kirwan, about the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, by a very able German clergyman of the name of Meyer, 

 who tried, with success, various experiments with a mineral sub- 

 stance found in his neighbourhood, which was long afterwards 

 shown to be an impure sulphate of lime.* 



* The name of plaster of Paris, by which this substance is commonly 

 known, arose from its abounding in the neighbourhood of tbat capital, 

 where it is burnt into a powder, and used as a stucco. The composition of 

 sulphate of lime, when pure, is — 



