128 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
In aseries of questions and answers given in this old encyclo- 
pedia the following are of especial interest : 
‘‘1. Does plaster act favorably on artificial meadows? Forty-three answers, 
of which forty affirmative. 
‘*9. Does it act favorably on artificial meadows the soil of which is very 
damp? ‘Ten answers, all no. 
“¢3, Will it supply the place of organic manure, or will a barren soil be con- 
verted into a fertile one by use of it? Seven answers, all no. 
‘¢4, Does gypsum sensibly increase the crops of cereals? Thirty-two answers, 
thirty negative.” 
Use in Virginia. 
Boyd, in his Resources of South-western Virginia,* written in 
1881, describes the use of gypsum as a fertilizer, and states : 
‘¢ A farmer (Sexton) of Chatham Hill, Smyth county, bought two old worn-out 
farms which scarcely yielded nine bushels of corn to the acre, the soil being in a 
limestone belt and covered more or less with flint containing potash and soda, 
and doubtless some comminuted iron ore. At first he plowed four inches deep, 
sowing about one bushel of plaster to the acre; the next year he gauged his plows 
two inches deeper, sowing an increased quantity of plaster, the yield of corn—' 
the crop he used—greatly augmenting; the third year he plowed two inches 
deeper, about eight inches altogether, using something less than two bushels of 
plaster to the acre, his crop at the end of the season being so great as to astonish 
him. The fourth year he plowed still deeper, bringing up the clay subsoil into 
contact, with an increased quantity per acre of plaster, making a yield at the end 
of the fourth season of 125 bushels of corn per acre on ground that had been 
really abandoned by the unenterprising people who had previously held it. This 
land when last seen seemed to be in a state of permanent fertility, for the corn on 
it in 1878 looked to the writer as though it would yield over 100 bushels to the 
aere.’’ Li 
Use in Ohio and Indiana. 
The Western Plaster Works, of Chicago, have given records of 
the following experiments made within the past two or three 
years. The first comes from Ohio and the second from Indiana: 
‘¢The past four seasons have been very dry, and a large part, probably two- 
thirds, of the clover seed sown has been lost. I sowed a field of eight acres to 
oats, then sowed on clover seed and cross-harrowed. I then put on about a 
bushel of plaster to the acre. The result was a good yield of oats and a fine 
catch of clover that grew finely through the summer. The same week I seeded 
the eight-acre lot I seeded one of four acres, and in precisely the same man- 
ner, save that I sowed plaster on two acres of it; the other two acres went with- 
out plaster. Where the plaster was sown the clover grew as finely as in the 
eight-acre lot, while on that without plaster the yield of oats was much lighter, 
and what clover seeds sprouted nearly all died from the effects of drought.”’ 
48, Page 107. 
