30 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
From the American Farmer. 
PLASTER AS A MANURE. 
If any one were asked, what substance next 
to Lime had produced the greatest melioration 
in the soil ol America, candor would force him 
to say that Plaster had. It is well known, too, 
that ii has produced quite a revolution in the agri- 
culture ol France, England and Germany. But 
although lew have tried it but to experience its 
benefits, although much ol il is used in our 
country, and the use of it is on the increase, 
still its use and increase holds no just proportion 
to what its merits asafertilizerof the soil would 
indicate that they should be. For a long .series 
of years the opinion obtained among farmers, 
to considerable extent, that it was of no utility 
on lands in the vicinity of salt water rivers; 
but this opinion, formed from erroneous premi- 
ses, is pretty generally exploded, il it has not 
become obsolete. We believe that il sprung, 
in the first instance, from its use, without obvi- 
ous beneficial effects, upon the chalk soils ol 
England bordering on the ocean ; but the wAy 
of its inefliciency on such soils was discovered 
by chemical analyses to arise Irom the fact that 
piaster, or the sulphate ol lime, abounded in 
those soils prior to the application ; and hence 
its inertness was directly traced to the fact ol 
its pre-existence in the soil, and not to its prox- 
imity to salt water. So it is with salt. This 
mineral when used on lands too remote from 
salt watei to be etfected by the sprays, operates 
as a good manure, when used either in com- 
posts or sown broadcast, but if applied to lands 
within the range of the influence of salt sprays, 
it is of no avail, and for the simple reason, that 
the mineral had already been supplied by ano- 
ther agency. Lime, loo, if applied to a soil 
where it already abounded in abundance, would 
be found to be ol no service, as the plants can 
only take op a certain portion, when held in so- 
lution by the rains, and any quantity beyond 
what is necessary to afford the appropriate sup- 
ply of stimulus, or nutriment, whichever it may 
be, or perhaps both, is expletive, and if it do not 
do harm, can be of no service. Plaster, salt and 
lime, have each and all, in their turn, been con- 
demned by superficial reasoners, who have 
drawn their conclusions from isolated cases of 
experiments, as injudiciously tested as sense- 
lessly condemned, and yet the brightest agricul- 
tural intelligences of the age, and t;eneral exj'e- 
rience, concur in the opinion, that when used 
with discretion, they are all admirable manures. 
What their specific actions are — whether the 
one or the other be stimulants, alteratives, 
promoters of digestion, absorbents, neutralizers, 
or nutrients, must, to a certain extent, remain 
as matters of speculation ; for even by the aid 
of the mo.st careful analyses of both them and 
their products, no settled or well defined opin- 
ions can be formed ol the peculiar province 
which they exert, or the modus operaruU by 
which their mysteries are wrought ; for, of a cer- 
tainty, they do each produce mysteries, as asto- 
nishing as those which marked another era of 
the world. 
If we give to a horse, who has already gor- 
mandized to his fill, a feed of oats, the probabil- 
ity is, that he will refuse them ; but this is no 
reason why we should condemn that grain as 
food for horses; neither is it lair to reject pla.s- 
ter, salt or lime, because, when applied to lands 
where they superabound, they do not manifest 
their improving properties. If the horse to 
w’hich the oats were oflered had been hungry, 
he would have devoured them with an admira- 
ble relish; so, also, had these minerals been 
presented to soils in need ol them, their good ef- 
fects would have been apparent. 
When we took pen in hand, our intention 
was, simply to introduce the article which we 
will subjoin upon “ Gypsum as a Manure;" but 
as we have digressed, and in our ramble touch- 
ed upon salt and lime, also, w’e shall quit these, 
and confine our succeeding remarks to plaster 
alone. 
For a long series ol years, plaster was con- 
sidered merely in the light ol a stbmdanl—llyAl 
it produced the growth of plants in a similar 
way to that by which alcoholic spirits produced 
plethora in the human system — by unnatural 
excitement — and the necessary consequence of 
this belief led to the opinion, that although the 
application of plaster produced temporary bene- 
fits' to a few crops, yet that it ultimately injured 
lands to which it is long, or in large quantities 
applied— that the land became plaster-sick. 
This plaster-sickness, we apprehend, was pro- 
duced in the same way that gluttons lake away 
their appetites— by over-fevtding. This stimu- 
lant theory, of course, rejected all idea that plas- 
ter could be considered in the light of a nutritive 
manure, and held that it was a mere exciter. 
And in aid of this view, the smallness ol the 
quantity used—a bushel to the acre — was addu- 
ced, as a proof positive of its beauty and truth. 
Now, we confess that we have long since re- 
jected this theory as unsound, unsatisfactory 
and unphilosophic. All analyses have proved, 
that vegetables, to which plaster had been ap- 
plied, eoDtained traces of the mineral — some 
more, same less, out all some. Then, in con- 
sidering and reflecting upon this fact, the ques- 
tion involuntarily occurred to our mind; if 
plaster affords no nou'ishment, how is it, that 
these plants were enabled to take it up through 
their feeders, and assimilate in the general mass 
of their constituent elements. And the only ra- 
tional answer to v'hich our mind could arrive, 
was, that if it bad not been of that character, it 
would have been rejected by the plants, and 
nevercould have been incorporated so intimate- 
ly, as all experience proved if had been. 
The latter labors of scientific men prove, that 
it is not only food of itself, but that plaster is a 
purveyor ol food ; that by its powers of absorp- 
tion, attraction and retention, it appropriates to 
itself from both earth and air, those rare and 
volatile gases, which form the very nourishment 
on which plants most delight to feed. Let us 
hear what Liebig says upon this branch of the 
subject: 
“ The evident influence ol gypsum upon the 
growth of grasses— the striking fertility and 
luxuriance of a meadow upon whish it is strew- 
ed — depends only upon its fixing in the soil the 
ammonia of the atmosphere, which would other- 
wise be volatalized, with the water which eva- 
porates. The carbonate of ammonia contained 
in rain water is decotnposed by gypsum, in pre- 
cisely the same manner as in the manufacture 
ol sal ammoniac. Soluble sulphate of ammo- 
nia and carbonate of lime are formed; and this 
salt of ammonia possessing no volatility is con- 
sequently retained in the soil. All the gypsum 
gradually disappears, but its action upon the 
carbonate of ammonia continues as long as a 
trace of it exists.” 
Again : 
“ It is quite evident, therefore, that the com- 
mon view concerning the influence of certain 
salts upon the growth of plants evinces only 
ignorance of its cause. The action of gypsum 
really consists in their giving a Jixed condition 
to the nitrogen — or ammonia, which is brought 
into the soil,, and which is indispensable for the 
nutrition of plants.” 
P aster, according to Liebig, attracts not only 
from the atmosphere the ammonia, v hich is 
precipitated with the rain and snow, retains it 
in the earth lor 'he use ol the growing plants, 
but prevents the escape ol tbe same fertilizing 
gases consequent upon the decomposition of 
vegetable and animal manures, and feeds them 
out as they may be needed by the necessities of 
the plants. By adopting this theory, which is 
beautiful and more than plausible, we behold 
the wisdom and mercy of God, in furnishing to 
man, at a moderate cost, an agent for prevent- 
ing the waste ol the riches of earth and air, that 
fruitfulness may abound. We say that there is 
more than plausibleness in this theory— nay, 
that there is truth in it. Unless its agency ex- 
tended beyond itself, how else could we account 
for the astonishing effect produced by the very 
small quantity of a bushel to the acre — however 
slimulative the carbonate ol lime and sulphuric 
acid may be, of which plaster i-s composed, un- 
less it composed other powers, it never could 
exert such potential influence, as it does, upon 
vegetable growth. 
Having premised thus much, we present to 
our readers the following article, which should 
command attention; 
GYPSUM AS A MANURE. 
[We take the following extracts from ths 
pamphlet noticed in our last, from which we 
copied some rules lor the application of guanoy 
by J. H. Sheppard, London.— iV. E. Earmer.'\ 
Gypsum, or the leal sulphate of lime, is con- 
sidered by all scientific chemists and agricuL 
turist a most powerful agent as manure. 1 beg 
to quote an extraordinary instance of its eff'ects, 
on its first introduction into Norfolk, in 1816. 
When I was attending Mr. Coke's sheep shear-*' 
ing, at Holkham House, and conversing with 
him in the park, he complained to me that a 
portion of his estate, near Wells, (about six 
miles distant,) was a very light sandy land ; and, 
although he treated k in every respect like the 
rest of his farm, with plenty ol manure, he waar 
unable to produce more than six or eight faushcls^ 
of grain per acre. 1 recommended him to ap- 
ply gypsum, and he desired me to lor ward him 
ten tons, for a trial. When 1 again called on 
him, (three years after,) he said the land before 
mentioned, by the application of gypsum, instead 
of producing 6 to 8 bushels of grain per acre, 
averaged 32 bushels ol American barley, 36 ol 
Chevalier barley, and 20 of wheat, per statute 
acre. 
I beg further to observe, that gypsum, applied 
upon light or blow-away sands, in liberal quan- 
tities, two or three times, turning over the soil 
and harrowing in, causes a body, and conse- 
quent adherence in the soil, which forms a ba- 
sis or groundwork, so that it will nUimatejy re- 
tain manures bestowed upon it, which previous- 
ly were washed into the bowels of the earth, 
without the least possible benefit to the crops. 
1 can only repeat, that the application ol gyp- 
sum to sand land, ifof genuinequality, and sys- 
tematically worked into the land, would prove 
the greatest benefit to the agricultnrist. 
N. B. — The top-dressing for the fly, and in- 
deed all top-dressings, should be fine gypsum, 
and applied either between showers of rain or 
in the early dew of the morning. 
Oorer.— Of this plant, gypsum is the indis- 
pensable, natural and most favorite food, and 
in which it delights to luxuriate. Upon a mea- 
sured portion ot young clover and other spring 
seeds, on a light gravelly soil, R. F. Long, Esq., 
of Bancroft, this year sowed gypsum as a top- 
dressing, in showery weather, at the rate of five 
bushels per acre. Comparing the produce and 
growth of this portion with the remainder of the 
field, he expresses himself thus: “You have 
olten seen a particular spot where a manure 
heap has been laid— its thickening and towering 
above everything around it: now this is exactly 
what your tenant’s gypsum has done.” 
Oats. — Mr. E. Jefferson, of Low Burnham, 
drilled in some oats upon a black moory soil, 
with a compost of ashes, rape-dust and soot. 
Immediately adjoining the compost oats, six 
rows were drilled in with gypsum alone, as 
an experiment. The gypsumed oats were pro- 
nounced by all, in less than a month, to be from 
30 to 40 per cent, in advance of the compost, 
and the larmer afterwards informed me that, on 
harvesting them, they were decidedly the better 
crop, having stronger straw and larger ears. 
Every one extols, and justly so, the manure 
of the farm yard; yet how few attempt to hus- 
band it as they ought. “Far-fetched and dear- 
bought” as some of our manures are, the farm- 
er continues to buy, whilst he daily witnesses 
under his own nose the loss of most valuable 
manure. Ammonia is constantly rising from 
the stalls and dung-heaps which might he fixed 
by gypsum. The urine is allowed to run any- 
where but into reservoirs or tanks, and is soon 
dried up and lost. 
III temper puts as many briefs into the law- 
yer’s bag as injustice. 
See that what is learned is learned pcifcclly 
