364 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Nov. 
Mixing Plaster and Manures. 
Editors of the Cultivator —In the July number 
of your paper, I notice an article on “ Mixing Plaster 
and Manures.” Having had some practical experience 
in this matter, I will give you the result of it, with my 
views upon this question. 
Several years since, I procured a cask containing 500 
lbs. of ground plaster. This was placed in an out-build¬ 
ing, where it remained one year, during which time, two 
or three barrels of urine were poured upon it, a few quarts 
being applied every day or two. After it had stood a 
while, by mixing a small particle of the saturated gyp¬ 
sum with an equal quantity of quick lime, and rubbing 
the two together for a short time, a great escape of free 
ammonia would follow; and if inhaled by the nostrils it 
was sufficiently pungent to draw tears, even from the 
eyes of a stoic. A portion of the ammonia, I presume, 
was in the form of sulphate, and another in that of car¬ 
bonate. merely absorbed and retained mechanically, as 
would have been the case, if the urine had been poured 
upon clay or loam. At any rate. the amount of ammonia at 
the end of the year, in the gypsum, was very large, and 
nearly the whole mass being mixed with the compost heap, 
exhibited favorable results upon my crops. It will be ob¬ 
served in this case, that a great quantity of water or liquid 
was used, which served to decompose the plaster. For 
several winters past, I have almost daily strewed a few 
quarts of gypsum on my hovel floors, which are nearly 
water tight. In one of my hovels, where ten head of cat¬ 
tle are kept, I can readily tell in the morning, by the 
smell, whether plaster was applied or not. For when 
this has not been strewed over the floor, a very strong 
odor of ammonia is present, which is absent if gypsum 
has been used. In this respect my experience differs 
from Mr. Pusey’s. Still, I think from the insoluble na¬ 
ture of gypsum, it has not the quality of fixing a very 
large amount of the ammonia in the solid part of ma¬ 
nure. In the rear of my cows I have a water-tight gut- 
ter. In this trough the urine is saved, when no litter is 
used to bed the cattle. If plaster is sprinkled in it, the 
next morning the liquid in the gutter will be covered 
with a thin pellicle of carbonate of lime. In this case, 
the large amount of liquid dissolves or decomposes the 
gypsum—resulting in sulphate of ammonia and carbo¬ 
nate of lime. The power of plaster for fixing the am¬ 
monia in manures, under all circumstances, I think has 
been greatly over rated. Every body knows, or ought 
to know, that if newly slaked lime, or unleached ashes, 
are thrown into the vault of a privy, a great escape of 
free ammonia ensues. The reason of this is now gene¬ 
rally understood. If dry gypsum is used for the same 
purpose, it has a precisely similar effect, though perhaps 
in a less degree. Any one having a few quarts of plas¬ 
ter, can test the truth of this at any time in their back¬ 
houses. The foul stench arising from a vault, is caused 
by the decomposition of sulphur, carbon, and phospho¬ 
rus in the fecal matter, and their union with hydrogen. 
But when lime, ashes, or 'plaster , are thrown into the 
vault, the liberation of free ammonia overpowers or de¬ 
stroys the other foul gases, by the greater pungency of 
the ammonia, and thus everything is apparently render¬ 
ed sweet. 
Gypsum will liberate the ammonia from night-soil; 
doubtless it will have the same effect when mixed w r ith 
guano. A few weeks since I poured three buckets of 
putrid urine upon a barrel of unleached ashes, and im¬ 
mediately covered the whole with three inches of finely 
ground and moist plaster; this I pressed down hard with 
a trowel. The volume of ammonia eliminated was enor¬ 
mous. The plaster had no more effect in arresting its 
flight, than a fish-net would have had drawn over the 
barrel. In regard to the economy of mixing gypsum 
with manures, I have come to the following conclusions: 
It will, in some degree, convert a portion of the carbo¬ 
nate of ammonia to a sulphate, or more volatile salt. It 
will mechanically absorb some; and when mixed with 
manure, is an easy and cheap mode «f applying it to the 
soil. As far as my experience goes, land dressed with 
gypsumed manure, is remarkably favorable to a rank 
growth of clover; and in some sections of the country, 
a good clover-ley is believed to lie at the foundation of 
successful farming. 
I have recently procured a copy of Prof. Norton’s 
Elements of Scientific Agriculture. In looking it over, 
I find at page 98, he recommends that the pasty mass 
of bones dissolved in sulphuric acid, should be mixed 
“ with a large quantity of ashes, peat earth, or charcoal 
dust.” If wood ashes are mingled with the fine bone- 
dust of a button-mould factory , there will be a very 
great escape of ammonia. Would not the same effect 
be produced by mixing ashes with the dissolved bones ? 
At page 107, in sowing guano, he says, 11 it is best to 
mix with ashes, sawdust, peat, &c.” 
Unleached ashes will set the ammonia of guano free, 
as readily as the hydrate of lime. At page 111, it is 
put down that in “100 lbs of carbonate of lime, or com¬ 
mon limestone, are 44 lbs. of water.” This is, doubt¬ 
less, a typographical error. I trust Professor N. will 
believe I have referred to his book, simply for the pur¬ 
pose of eliciting correct agricultural knowledge, and not 
in the spirit of criticism. 
While my pen is in hand, suffer me to say to your cor¬ 
respondent, W. C. A., of Tioga, who complains of the 
“ fire-fanging” of his sheltered manure, that if he will 
keep his hogs or young cattle upon the pile, or in any 
other way tramp it down solid, so as to exclude the oxy¬ 
gen of the atmosphere, he need fear no bad result from 
sheltering his dung. Does the manure in a sheep hovel 
heat and mould when trodden down solid by the sheep? 
No. The same rule will apply to the droppings of cattlo 
when treated in the manner pointed out above. Levi 
Bartlett. Warner, N. H., August 5, 1851. 
Trotting Horse Trustee.—A correspondent of 
Frazer's [London] Magazine , describes the trotting 
gelding Trustee, celebrated as having trotted, in harness, 
twenty miles in an hour. He was got by the imported 
blood-horse Trustee, who was also the sire of the run¬ 
ning mare Fashion. Of the gelding, the writer says— 
“ The old chestnut is half-blood; but you would never 
guess it, so chunky, and thick-limbed, and sober is he 
His action is uneven, and seemingly laborious; you would 
not think him capable of covering one mile in three 
minutes, much less of performing twenty at the same 
rate.” 
