204 
Annual Report of the 
Mr. Allen. As soon as you can in the spring. 
Question. Have you not also made free use of manure as well as 
plaster? 
Mr. Allen. I have; but by the aid of the plaster I have been 
able to raise great crops of clover, and keep stock and make mauure. 
Question. How much clover do you sow to the acre? 
Mr. Allen. Well, as good a seeding as ever I made in my life I 
made with four quarts of clover seed to the acre, but I would rec¬ 
ommend more than that; but with plaster sown on the ground at 
the time of seeding, about four quarts will make a better seeding 
than ten or twelve quarts will without it. The plaster makes it 
live. 
Mr. J. N. Smith. Has the gentleman tried plaster upon pota¬ 
toes, beans or peas? 
Mr. Allen. I have. On sod ground it will double the crop of 
peas; but it will do no good on a crop of peas on old ground. 
Question. Why not? 
Mr. Allen. I cannot tell you that, I wish I could; that is one 
of the things I cannot understand. 
Mr. Whiting. I happen to be a neighbor of Mr. Allen, and his 
land lies on two sides of mine, and I know somewhat in regard to 
the history of his use of plaster. Although he is a very enthusias¬ 
tic man and sometimes he is accused of riding a hobby, I don’t 
think he has ever ridden the hobby of plaster. I am satisfied that 
his neighbors pretty generally have become convinced that plaster 
is very profitable to use on the land in that vicinity. I would offer 
one criticism on one point. He undertakes to tell in that essay his 
experiences—what he knows, what have been his results, but he 
deviates from that to theorizing when he tells how and in what 
manner plaster effects those results. I don’t think he knows any¬ 
thing about it. 
Mr. Bement. Has Mr. Allen ever tried lime? In my experi- 
ience, lime does more good than plaster. It is well known that 
twenty-nine years ago we could raise a big crop, if we did’nt half 
put it in. The fact was, the ground was full of alkali. Now is 
that alkali in lime, or in plaster or manure? My experience is, it 
is in the lime. I think in a dry season lime will give a better 
result on my place than plaster. My soil is a black clay with a 
very little sand mixed with it. And also I have seen lime on clay 
