22 
THE I'ARMEr’s MANOAL. 
value of your soil, constitutes a second part of good 
farming; but the great art of the whole is in dispos- 
ing of these crops in such a manner as shall insure the 
greatest aggregate value to the farm, and the stock, 
and secure the greatest and most permanent annual 
revenue; this comprises the most difficult, and im- 
portant art of good farming. All these combined ; 
the fallow crops are calculated to produce, particular- 
the potatoe, and the Heligoland bean, nut except- 
ing the white bean, particularly the. 1000 lor one, (so 
called.) The bean should be harvested as soon as 
the eye has attained a deep colour, or the leaf turned 
yellow, and cured in the nicest manner; it may be 
housed, or threshed in the field, if the weather is fair. 
Gypsum, 
No one article of rural economy has proved so use- 
ful, and no one has excited so much speculation and 
inquiry, as Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris. When 
it was first introduced, its immediate effects were so 
striking as to excite alarm ; and it was soon pronounc- 
ed a dangerous drainer of the soil, or present benefit, 
attended with an after evil ; a manure that would make 
rich fathers, and poor sons; this alarm has in some 
measure subsided, (though not altogether,) and this 
most valuable enlivener of vegetation is now coming 
into general use. 
The nice investigations of the learned Dr. Davy, 
have proved gypsum to be tlie most natural food 
for plants, of all the manures in use ; by show- 
ing by a chymical analysis, that gypsum is the 
only .substance taken into circulation in its pure 
state, and forming a component part of vegetable 
substances. This fact being proved, and disclosed 
by so high an authority, has led to further inquiry into 
the modus operandi — or the manner in which this 
is done. 
Chymists reason thus : — Gypsum will not dissolve 
