THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
I can say, and say irnly, that 1 never saw or 
heard ofthe man or any of his family, till the 
occasion first mentioned, nor have I now any 
connection with them or any more friendship 
ior them than for any others, that by industry 
and afood management, make themselves com- 
fortable and respectable. Such folks 1 wish to 
encourage, and as far as in my power, present 
to others for example, and therefore hope you 
Vidll not refuse this a place in the Cultivator. 
PlymnUh, Conn., June 16. C. Butler. 
Action of Plaster as a Manure. 
From the New England Farmer. 
Mr. Sreck — Several weeks since oneofyour 
correspondents gave us a short review of “ M. 
BousingmiU's Rural Econnrny Bousingauli’s 
theory ofthe action of plaster of Paris, as a 
manure for plants, is at variance with the pre- 
conceived notions of my own. 
1 am well aware of the fearful odds I have to 
contend with in atte npiing to “ruu an opposi- 
tion line” against him. But if he is riatht, it 
should be umversalty known among farmers. 
If I am wrong in mv views upon the subject, 
my only wish is to be put right. 
Mr. idousingauli’s theory is “ that the appli- 
cation of gypsum is but an indirect method of 
liming the soil,” nr only acts as lime would ; my 
opinion is, that it acts mostly from its sulphuric 
acid, or rather sulphur. 
Sulphur is one ofthe essential elements of 
many, it not all species ot plants — some kinds, 
to be sure, require more, and some less; or upon 
analysis, some exhibit larger quani ities than 
others. It is also one of the essential elements 
of various parts ot animals; it is lound in the 
blood, muscle, &o. The albumen, fibrine and 
caseine, are rich in sulphur. From what 
source does the aniuial ho ly derive these three 
fundamental comp jnents ? Unquestionably they 
are obtained from the plants upon which the an- 
imals subsist. — 
The source from which sulphur is obtained 
bv pmnts is' nor the airnosphere, according to 
Prol. Liebig, but the soil, whence it is furnish- 
ed by the decomposition of sulphates. 
Now one thing seems to be pretty certain , 
plants cannot take sulphur by “the great wool- 
en spoonful,” as Mr. Squeers made the boys 
take it, 1 the Dotheboy Hall school, l)at they 
must take it in their rootlets (spongioles,) af- 
ter it has been deconposed, in the form ot very 
dilute sulphuric aci i, or sulphate of lime — so- 
da, potash, oreven iron —or a sulphuret, &c., in 
solution with water, for it is too uni versally pre- 
sent in plants to believe for (jne moment, it is 
the result ot chance. E/en in our.lorest trees, 
when burned to ashes, it is al ways present in 
large quantities, in ih^ form ot sulphuric acid. 
Fro n my earliest recollection until alter I was 
20 years of age, my 1 uher carried on, m con- 
nection with a country store, the manuficture 
of potash. The ashes, were leached in large 
tubs or vats, the lye poured into kettles and a 
strong heat kept up for something over a day 
and a halt, when there w )ul 1 be enough from 
what Ive was boiled down for a barrel of potash. 
Alierthe lye had been boiling some ten or twelve 
hours, by sinking an iron ladle in the boiling 
lye, it would soon be filled with what \yas then 
termed nen'ral sab's, but in fact were crystals of 
sulphate of potash, and so large an amount of 
suluhuric acid was present in the lye necessary 
for a barrel of potash, that there would be form- 
ed fro na three to four pecks of sulphate of potash 
— nearl^r a quarter of a barrel, or from 20 to 25 
per cent, of a barrel of potash would be sulphate 
instead ol carbonate of poiasn. But before the 
process is completcil, it is necessary to increase 
the fire and keep up an intense heat for hours 
together, until the keules and ihei-r contents are 
brought to a “ white heat.” In all probability 
a part (,f the sulphuric acid is d'uven off by 
the //t-tl/Lir pr icess, and upon analvsis o( the 
potash, it would not yield anything like the per 
centage of sulphate I have named above. 
1 cite thi.s case to show the quantity of sul- 
phur in the ashes of our forest trees, but many 
classes of plants that serve for food lor man 
and animals contain larger proportions of sul- 
phur than oui forest trees. It seems almost 
unnecessary to say, that it is derived from the 
soil m which the trees and plants grow — or, 
that it it is one of the absolutely essential ele- 
ments of plan:s. Some may inquire how the 
sulphur is applied to the soil. '1 he answer is, 
by the disintegration and decoinposiiion of 
rocks and stones containing sulphur and iron. 
I have, and so have hundreds of other farmers, 
dug from beneath the soil, tons upon tons ot 
hard and perfectly sound rocks that have lain 
in the soil “ ever since the flood,” and up to the 
time they were dug they had not apparently lost 
or gained a single ounce. The grooves and 
scratches caused by their transportation in that 
mighty current of water that once swept over 
this continent at some remote period of time, 
were as legible as if made but yesterday. 
But as soon as exposed to tLe-action oflhs at- 
mosphere and moisture, a very marked change 
commences — ihe oxygen of the air, aided by 
moisture, combines with the iron in the stones — 
it separates in thin .scales, an I the sulphur is 
set free, and that in turn combines with oxygen, 
and sulphuric aci I is generated; the acid com- 
bines with the oxide of iron (iron rustj andcop- 
peras — or sulphate of iron is lormed; as this is 
very soluble in water, the ground becomes satu- 
rated, (and on many farms most injuriously,) 
with sulphuric acid and iron. Now, as far as 
my observation extends, philter of Pans has 
liule or no effect upon such soil ; it has already 
enpuehof the sub-hnr element in the soil, and 
app-lying plaster to such land is like “catrying 
coals to Newoastle ” The brakes that spring 
np by the sides of stone walls, made of this 
kind of rock, anr! the while maple leaves that 
lodge about them, and the grass in the fields in 
the immediate vicini’y of such stones, in the 
spring ot the year will be colored as black as 
the ink with which I am writing, Irom the sul- 
phate of iron (copperas) iormed from the de- 
composition of these brimstone rocks. 
But upon soils and tra Is of land where the 
rocks and stones are clear granite, or such as 
do not readily decompose by the action of oxy- 
gen alone, and upon the diluvial sand and gra- 
vel— or what is here termed pine lands — or anv 
other soils that do not contain “ sulinhnr stones,” 
I have ob-erved that Plaster ol Paris always 
is applied with good results, becnu.se in apply 
ing gypsum to such soils we apply su luhur — a 
substance in whicn the .soil is deficient, and we 
apply ii, also, in a form in which iheplant. can 
appropriate it to its growth. It does n u f'ollcw 
that sulphuric acid to be useful, must be in 
combiuaiion with lime, for experiments have 
proved that very dilute sulphuric acid has pre- 
cisely the same effect as gypsum. This fact, 
the reviewer of B msingault’s Rural Ec-emomy 
and Professor J.>hns(nn hoih confirm. Then, 
the eff'Cts- cannot b? due in this case, to 
Lime, as there is none in clear oil ot vitriol or 
sulphuric acid. 
But in confirmation of what i have said, I 
will give a simple fact or two. A lew of the 
last days ot July, the past summer, I spent, in 
company with several others, as one of the 
viewing committee (ol the Merrimack Co. Ag. 
Society) on farms, &c. In rambling over the 
farm of A. Brown, Esq., NortbfieM, N. H., I 
noticed that the stones in his wall were nearly 
all pure vranite. I observed to him that plaster 
of Paris would be a good manure lor bis soil, 
and said, have you ever'trieil itl Yes, hesays, 
I have tried it, and it is uselul upon my soil, 
and when, we come to my cornfield, I will show 
you iis effects. No more said upon the subject 
at that time; after lo-ikingat a field of wheat 
and .some other crops, we came 'othe cornfield. 
There were four acres — a good soil — well ma- 
nured, and free from weeds; the corn was verv 
heavy; in p.assing through it, we came to four 
rows of very small corn, not more than hall as 
heavy as the rest. Upon e.xpressing our sur- 
prise, he informed u.s that those four rows had 
no plaster; the rest of the field had a teaspoon- 
ful of plaster dropped in each hill at the ti'ue 
the corn was planted, and that was all that made 
the diff 'rence. 
But some ofthe committee expressed surprise 
that the corn on such good land and well ma- 
nured, should not be any better, even if it diu not 
have plaster, “Oh !” says Mr. B., “ it is a great 
deal poorer, for the others having plaster, — the 
plaster draws the nitre, or air, or something 
irom the un plastered, and robs it.” (The thought 
occurred to me that this was confirming what 
Prot, Sprengel says ol the effect of marling al- 
ternate strips of land in Holstein ; the unmarl- 
ed strips are much less proclticive in conse- 
quence of marling the other strips.) But one 
thing is a fact: one leaspoonful of plaster on 
his corn, made about as much clifierence as 
three of guano did upon nine; and had not the 
whole field been any better than the unplasteied 
rows were, he never would ‘have entered it for 
a premium: that’s another fact. A lew days 
since I saw a son of Mr. Brown, and he inform- 
ed me that there was about as much difference 
in the corn at harvest, as there was when I saw 
it, the 3(>'h of July. I cannot yet believe that a 
teaspoonfol ol lime in the hill would have made 
the difference in his corn that the plaster did — 
but 1 will write to him to make experiments the 
coming season, and have no doubt that he will, 
and report the results. 
The next day I was upon the farm of Capf, 
S. Chadwick, in Boscawen. Flere I observed 
a different kind of rock and stone prevailed. — 
Many ol them, in the walls and about the fields, 
had di.sintegrated, and others were in a stale of 
rapid decomposition by the agency of oxygen 
and moisture. 1 observed to Capt. C.il^at I 
thought plaster was ol but little or no use upon 
hisfarm. “ Well, ’t is not,” says he; “I have 
tried it, out andout\ the money is thrown away 
in the purchase ofit, and the labor is lost in ap- 
plying it.” 
Prof. Hitchcock, in one of his reports upon 
the Geological Survey of LVIassachusetts, gives 
several well attested lads of the very remark- 
able, effects of what he terms “ muck sard. ” 
I'hi.s sand is strongly charged with .-ulrihiire ted 
hydrogen, and by its application in numerous 
insiance',4t effeemd wonrier*- upon various crops 
and plants. May not its efii cts be asciii ed to 
the sulphur, in combination with hydrogen, one 
ot the elemenis of water? Sulphniic acid is 
nothing but sulphur and oxvgen, the otlier ele- 
ment of water. No one, wiiti the least preten- 
sions to a knowledge ol animal and vegetable 
physiology, doubts ihe impmtance of phosj ho- 
ric acid to animals and plants : wiihout il, in 
combination with lim?, the wr.eat cease.s to per- 
lect its seed, or to be nnt 1 itious, and the young 
animal cannot grow. Bones are, u hen burned, 
nothing hut phosphoric acid and lime. Why 
not with jnst as much proprietv say the applica- 
tion of bones was but an imlirect wav of liming 
the soil ? The Englisli I'airners would veto such 
an idea. 
But, as I observed, if M. Bousingault is right 
in his theory, it is impmtant ih.al ine fact stumid 
be irnown ; and i will dliislraie its i'mponance. 
The farmers at Haverhill, N. H., and vi. initv, 
use many tons ot plaster every y'ear: they ob- 
tain it at Concord, N. PI. When ground fit for 
use, it costs 50 cents per cwt. The Ireighu as 
much more ; so that the piaster co.‘-ls lliem one 
centperlb.; lOOlbs, of plaster containing 33 
lbs. oflime. Then it costs them $■3 per hun- 
dred lor the lime obt iined by the pnrc.hasecf 
'planter. I presume lime at tiie kdns in Haver- 
hill, -N. H., can be purchased, fur half a cent 
per lb — and il it is f.nly the lime irt the plaster 
that acts, as M. Bousingault says, then ii is 
very important that farmers stmui i know it. 
It is to be wished, then, that those fanners up- 
on whose soil plaster exhibits such lavorable 
results, would make many experiments with 
plaster and lime— and if it shoulii prove that a 
teaspoonful of lime has as good an effeci as the 
same quaniiiy of plaster, it will save liie far- 
mers much money — but it will be a. sorry day to 
some of the Nova Scotians. Yours, truly, " 
Levi Bartlett. 
Woj-ner, N. TT., O J. 16, 1815. 
