Gypsum as a Manure to Artificial Grasses. 



Ill 



from one of the fields to the other ; and at harvest time the extra 

 produce of hay was quite one ton per acre. I then laid the field 

 up, and cut it again in October ; when the effect of the gypsum 

 was still more apparent, there being \\ ton of hay per acre from 

 the so dressed portion of the field, and scarcely any on the re- 

 mainder of the land. Cutting the saintfoin tv/ice in one year^. and 

 the enormous difference in the produce^ brought a great many 

 persons to look at the field, who all declared they had never seen 

 the like before. On the same piece^ this year (1839) I did not 

 use gypsum^ thinking it would be good enough without, and the 

 difference was quite as great. I mowed twice the gypsumed 

 portion, but there was nothing to cut on that which had not the 

 gypsum. I can even see the effect where three years ago the 

 gypsum was spread, I always leave a strip or two in every field 

 to prove the effect. There is one thing more I wish to observe^ 

 that I never put on gypsum before the last week in April or the 

 first in May ; and choose^ if possible, a moist morning, I have 

 not found much good effect from its application on either chalk or 

 cold clay soils." 



The expense of the application of the gypsum is about 7s. per 

 acre : this substance being usually sold at Reading and South- 

 ampton at Is. 9(i. per bushel. In the midland counties it may be 

 had at a still more reasonable rate : thus, in Derbyshire^ it is so 

 plentiful that the farmers' cheese-room floors are commonlv 

 formed with it ; it abounds too in the north of England. The 

 comparative produce of the gypsumed over not gypsumed land is 

 very great — it of course varies in amount ; I have seen it double 

 the produce of clover-hay, and give an equally copious crop of 

 lucern : but this last I invariably cut green for soiling. 



Mr. Smith, of Highstead^ found still greater benefit from the 

 use of gypsum to his clover leys; for where the simple soil pro- 

 duced one ton only per acre of hay, the portion of the same soil to 

 which 5 bushels per acre of gypsum had been applied yielded 3 

 tons : the first yielding only 20 lbs. of seed, w^hile the latter pro- 

 duced 105 lbs. Mr. Smith, too, first noticed — w^hat my own ob- 

 servations have confirmed — that cattle, horses. Sec. always prefer 

 the grass growing on the gypsumed portion of the field to any 

 other. The same remark is made by those who spread coal- 

 ashes on their grass leys : the peat-ashes of Berkshire produce 

 the same effect. 



The general introduction, then, of gypsum as a top-dressing for 

 the artificial grasses, which I have mentioned, is certainly an object 

 of no mean interest to the farmer ; especially if he cultivates the 

 poor inland soils of England, w^here artificial manures are scarce, 

 and the carriage of even the most portable is expensive : for 

 gypsum possesses in this respect two advantages combined, which 

 do not belong to any other, even of the saline manures ; its first 



