Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 73 
deductions of its effects, knowing that men differ very materially on 
the effect of plaster. We know that plaster requires over five 
hundred times its hulk in water to dissolve it, and if applied in dry 
weather, without rains and dews, it is inert and inoperative. But 
when there comes a good rain it seems to touch the clover as with 
a magic wand, and it springs forth and produces abundantly. I 
hold it to be three-fold in its benefits; an absorbent, solvent, and 
manure; an absorbent, as stated. As a solvent it may be more 
powerful than any manure in the w^orld, to render the ingredients 
of the soil valuable for plant food. 
And the great trouble with lands becoming plaster-sick is this: 
Where crops have been produced and taken off from the soil, and 
no return of compensation in manure, that is the trouble. You 
take out the ingredients of the soil, rich like that in the Genesee 
valley, lying where no other plant food but the waste coming from 
the adjacent hills can reach it; apply no manure and it may be¬ 
come plaster-sick. But if you manure the land it will never be¬ 
come plaster-sick; but if you sell your hay and keep no stock on 
your land, and do not manure it, it may. I find it more effective 
upon clay and sandy land, and it does produce a good effect even 
upon black ground; but not so much as on clay soil. 
Mr. Smith, of Green Bay. Have you tried it for peas and such 
crops. 
Mr. Stilson. I have with success. 
Mr. Cooper, of Mineral Point. I wish to know about the price 
which would pay to buy plaster at. 
Mr. Stilson. I think that $10 a ton is the highest price I ever 
paid for it in bulk, and under favorable circumstances I have had 
it pay me from 200 to 500 per cent. 
Mr. Clark, of Green County. I see that the price of plaster in 
Milwaukee is $6.50 a ton per car load, and I think it can be got on 
the Mississippi River at about the same price. 
Mr. Benton. For the experiment, a man could afford to pay $5 
a pound if he never had used any of it. It was a question whether 
I could afford to pay for the plaster which caused the additional 
crop of hay on the land for three years. I think I can. The first 
season I sowed it, clover sold for $8 a ton, and that would be $12 an 
acre extra, and I could afford to pay $12 for 100 pounds of plaster, 
and have made money by it. 
