70 
Annual Repoet of the 
I took one of those farms that was wheat-killed. The man I 
bought of said he could not make clover or timothy stick, and he 
went west, and left me to commence farming on a worn-out farm, 
and I made that farm fertile with clover and pasture alone, without 
any plaster. 
Mr. Clark, of Green. I should like to have my farm very sick 
with plaster. I have known in New York, the wheat regions, when 
1 first commenced farming, where the land was in about the condi¬ 
tion of the land of Wisconsin, they had gone down to 10 or 12 
bushels of wheat per acre. I have known that land now 15 to 20 
years without any manure, and no clover plowed in. It is only 
seeded down and cut off, and I have known the wheat crop to be 
doubled, so that they raised from 20 to 30 bushels per acre; and land 
after it has been plastered 20 to 30 years, if it is not sick, I will take 
the chances of it. . As to the benefit of plaster there is a good deal 
of discrepancy. The difference is so astonishing sometimes, that 
no man can give a reasonable solution. I have my theory, which 
is that plaster is one of the cheapest absorbents that we have. No 
man that goes into a stable in the winter and feels the ammonia rising 
up, and throws plaster on it, but will find that it is gone in a few 
minutes—it absorbs it. My theory is that it absorbs ammonia from 
the atmosphere, is thence carried into the soil, and makes it rich in 
plant food. 
Secretary Field. A single idea strikes me right here. I think 
Horace Greeley, among the other good things he said about farm¬ 
ing, never said a truer thing than that he would put plaster on the 
soil, and gather ammonia from the atmosphere above it, and he 
would also steal it from his neighbor’s farm. I don’t believe there 
is much fertilizing property in the plaster itself; but that it does 
gather ammonia from the atmosphere is evident, much of which 
would not be put into that particular piece of land from the rains, 
or in any other way than by this particular fertilizer. I think that 
is the great benefit that arises from the use of plaster. I never 
have used it to any very, great extent in my farming, but what I 
have used convinced me that there is where its great beneficial 
property lies. Now here are large amounts of ammonia and other 
fertilizing properties, arising daily from this and every other city 
throughout our broad land, and from the stables and other places 
in the rural districts, and of course large quantities of this plant- 
