THE CULTIVATOR. 
319 
like potatoes, and planted the following spring in drills, six feet apar 
between the drills, (giving room for a crop of potatoes the first year,) 
and twelve or eighteen inches apart in the drills. It is better to 
purchase the seed in the fall, as it will bear transportation much 
better when the buds are not much started,—and the price is consi¬ 
derably lower. The bottom roots are also dug at this time and 
washed, (or rinsed if dug from a light soil,) dried, &c. 1 have, ol 
three year old roots, unengaged, 150 bushels, or enough to plant 
from 23 to 25 acres. 
Mr. James Eaton, of Winfield, Herkimer co. is a successful culti¬ 
vator and an honorable dealer in the article. There are others al¬ 
so, so that applicants can be supplied to a considerable amount. 
For more particular information, as to the cultivation of madder, 
see “Phinney’s Calendar, or Western Almanac, for 1834,”—also a 
communication in the Cultivator for August, in which is stated my 
success in the cultivation of this root for two or Ihree years past. 
As it is not the intention of the subscriber to offer any remarks 
to the public but what he believes are founded in truth, he respect¬ 
fully invites editors of newspapers devoted to agriculture and manu¬ 
factures, to copy some portion of the above into their respective pa¬ 
pers—also other editors who may consider the subject important to 
the public. 
A small package of ground madder will be sent, on application to 
the care of the president or committee of any agricultural society in 
the state, previous to their annual fair, lor the inspection of members 
interested. ( RUSSEL BRONSON. 
Bridgewater, Oneida co. Sept. 1, 1834. 
[From the American Farmer .] 
QUERIES ON PLASTER OF PARIS. 
PROPOUNDED BY MR. JEFFREYS. 
The following are the queries, to which Col. Taylor has annexed 
answers, on plaster of Paris : (See his letter.) 
What quantity to the acre have you generally used 1 
On what soils does the plaster succeed best? 
In what way is it best applied to the soil—with, or without plough¬ 
ing—vvith, or without other manure ? 
Have you repeated the application of it? At what intervals, and 
with what effect ? 
To what kind of grain, succulent, and leguminous crops can it 
be beneficially applied? And in what way is it best applied to 
them ? 
To what kind of grasses can it be beneficially applied? and in 
what way is it best applied to them ? 
What has been the increased product per acre, of grain and grass 
crops, by means of the plaster alone ? 
What is the result of the experiment which you have made of 
setting aside 200 acres, half to be cultivated in corn yearly and al¬ 
ternately, half to lie uncultivated and ungrazed, and the whole to 
receive an annual dressing of one bushel of plaster to the acre.* 
cod. taylor’s reply. 
Port Royal, March 4,1818. 
Dear Sir, —To your questions of the 4th inst. I reply— 
1. I sow from three pecks to one bushel of plaster upon an acre. 
2. It succeeds upon all soils to which I have applied it; those re¬ 
quiring to be drained excepted. 
3. Sown on clover in the spring, it benefits it considerably. Used 
in any other mode, I plough it in. But I have even discontinued the 
* For fear ibis experiment may not be understood by the question, I will 
give it more fully in Col. Taylor’s own words: “I have set aside 200 acres, 
(divided into two fields,) half to be cultivated in corn yearly, half to he uncul¬ 
tivated and ungrazed, and the whole to receive an annual dressing of one bu¬ 
shel of plaster to the acre. The repetition of the culture being too quick for a 
perennial plant, I use the bird foot clover, as we commonly call it, to raise 
clothing for the land, having found that the plaster operated as powerfully on 
that as on red clover. One field produces a crop of corn, and the other being 
enclosed, receives a crop of ungrazed vegetable matter. The succeeding year 
the ungrazed field is taxed with the crop of corn, and the corn field fed w'ith 
the ungrazed vegetable In one, the plaster is sown upon the bird-foot clover 
in March or April, and in the other ploughed in at its fallow. The object of 
the experiment is to ascertain whether an annual bushel of plaster to an acre, 
combined with a biennial relinquishment to the soil of its natural vegetable 
product, will enable it to be severely cropped (croptj every other year with¬ 
out impoverishment, or vvith an addition to its fertility. The first effect would 
suffice to check an evil, every where demonstrating the wretched state of our 
agriculture: the second would be a cheap and expeditious mode of improving 
the soil, even where the state of agriculture is good.” 
G. W. JEFFREYS. 
first practice, from observing, that when plaster is sown and plough¬ 
ed in with wheat in the fall, a top dressing to the subsequent clover 
is of little or no use ; and from thinking that the effect of the plaster 
sooner ceases as a top dressing, than when ploughed in. The best 
ways I think of using it, are in the spring, upon the long manure of 
the preceding winter, to be ploughed in with it—upon well covered 
fields to be sown immediately before they are fallowed—in rolling it 
very wet with seed corn, bushel to bushel, and in mixing it with 
seed wheat so moist as to let the wheat divide in sowing, in such a 
quantity as that the land shall not receive less than three pecks to 
an acre. The latter is chiefly for the sake of the succeeding clover. 
The wheat is benefitted in a very small degree, but it prevents em¬ 
bezzlement of the seed. 
4. I have had a small mill exclusively for grinding plaster during 
twenty years. In that period I have used several hundred tons, and 
tried a great variety of experiments, using it every year to con¬ 
siderable extent. I think it a valuable ally of, but by no means a 
substitute for manure. That there should be intervals of two, three, 
or four years, between applying it broadcast to the same land. That 
its effect is graduated by the quantity of vegetable matter upon 
w’hich it is sown. That upon close grazed land, it does but little 
good at first, and repeated, would become pernicious; and that it 
must be united either with the long manure of the winter, or the un¬ 
grazed vegetable cover produced in summer. 
5. Corn mixed with plaster is sometimes highly benefitted, and 
almost unexceptionably in a degree, depending chiefly on its alliance 
with vegetable matter, and occasionally upon the seasons. Its ef¬ 
fect upon wheat is before stated. But all crops are ultimately im¬ 
proved by its gradual improvement of the land, including those upon 
which its effect is not immediately visible. The small crops, vege¬ 
table, succulent, or culmiferous, are often benefitted by a mixture 
with plaster, when planted measure for measure. 
6. I have satisfied myself that plaster ought to be used to benefit 
all kinds of grasses, in the modes explained, and that it ought not to 
be sown as a top dressing. By improving the land, it benefits all 
kinds of grasses. 
7. It is impossible to say how far the plaster, valued exclusively 
of its vegetable ally, may have increased the crops of grain. Used 
as a top dressing to clover (red) on land never before plastered, I 
have often had that grass increased four fold to a line, dividing it 
from similar land clover. Spaces left unplastered across large fields, 
when sown in wheat, have remained visible during the whole season 
of rest, by the inferiority in luxuriance of a great variety of natural 
grasses and weeds. The 200 acres you mentioned have never re¬ 
ceived any manure, and the corn stalks have been taken off. But 
they have been completely secured against grazing. They now 
produce threefold more corn than when the experiment commenced. 
The rest of my farm, having had the manure, will produce fivefold 
more corn than it could do twenty years ago. The casualties at¬ 
tending wheat, render that a precarious criterion of improvement. 
I am respectfully, sir, your most obd’t serv’t, 
JOHN TAYLOR. 
HouselioM Affairs. 
[From the Ohio Farmer .] 
THE FRUIT-DRIER. 
Mr. Medary :—Having found a fruit-drier a convenience in fami¬ 
ly economy, I am induced to give a short description of it,-and its 
uses, pro bono publico. Take two boards eighteen inches wide and 
four feet long, set them on end by the side of the house—on the top 
nail a cover, extending a little over the front, and leaving an inch 
open at the back to allow the air to pass freely—make ten or twelve 
drawers three feet long, three inches deep. The sides of common 
stuff, the bottoms of half inch stuff, split into narrow slits, and with 
brads fastened five-eighths of an inch from each other, so as to let 
the air pass freely; on these slats lay the fruit; the drawers may be 
taken out on sunny days, and in case of rain, and at night, they can 
be replaced. In this way the fruit is never moulded, and much la¬ 
bor is saved. The fruit requires no moving, and the draw’ers can 
be replaced with very little labor, and the drying goes on in rainy 
weather and at night. A HOUSE KEEPER. 
White maple bark makes a good light brown slate colour. This 
should be boiled in water, set with alum. The colour is reckoned 
better when boiled in brass instead of iron. 
