318 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
papers read here on the subject of plaster, are calculated to lead men 
in my neighborhood to sow plaster, it seems to me they will waste 
their money in the purchase, and waste their time in sowing it, 
because I think the plaster will not meet either of the three diffi¬ 
culties we encounter. When you talk about the benefits of plaster, 
tell the farmers present, that your farms are situated in the barrens; 
because I find that every man who uses a bushel of plaster on such 
soil as prevails over a part of Green county, will lose his time and 
labor, and the money he pays for the plaster. 
Mr. Clark: I would like to add a little on the other side of the 
question, lest we all get enthusiastic and think we are going to pay 
all our debts next year and get rich by the use of plaster. Where 
I live, near Beloit, we got enthusiastic over a statement Mr. Allen 
made in regard to sowing plaster. In our farmers 1 club we made 
arrangements and bought a carload of plaster, costing us $9 per 
ton, which we divided up among the members. We followed out 
Mr. Allen’s direction. I had a boy go forward with a harrow, one 
man to follow sowing the clover, another sowing the plaster. On 
one forty acres, we would sow a strip a few rods wide and mark it 
with stakes and then skip a strip. I saved a barrel of plaster to put 
on my corn. It stands there yet. There has never been a particle 
of plaster bought in that vicinity to my knowledge since. There 
was not a place where any one could see a particle of difference 
from its use. I never grew as small clover. I have grown clover 
and had it stand up without difficulty, and make excellent hay. 
Question: Does the shading of land by a stack, or otherwise, add 
fertility to the soil? 
Mr. Hazen: I have listened with considerable interest to this 
question of raising clover with plaster. I attended some of the pre¬ 
vious meetings here in this place, and was partly converted to the 
idea that plaster was a good thing to sow. I have experimented 
some with it. I would think it would be well for people, when 
talking about using plaster, to state the kind of soil they used it 
on. My farm is prairie and oak openings. It is pretty rich and 
keeps stock well. After attending meetings two years, I procured 
some plaster and sowed on my pasture and clover. Put it on corn; 
sowed it in different ways, by way of experiment. I failed to see 
any benefit from it. I wouldn’t draw it home from Fond du Lac or 
any railroad station if you would give me any amount of it, for use 
