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at best fo limited, as to prevent us from being able to know with certainty the cause of any one phenomenon that occurs, refpecting rural operations. That gypfum fhould in fome cafes act as a very powerful manure, while in other cafes it fhall prove quite inert, is nothing furprifing: Many other manures are in the fame predicament. Lime, in fome cafes, fertilizes land to an aftonishing degree, and in other cafes it produces no fort of effect at all. Both thefe I have myfelf experi ́enced and though I know theories have been applied to account for this peculiarity, that are in the mouth of every student of agriculture, yet I can with great truth affert, that I have feen thefe oppofite effects produced on two foils, that were so much alike in every circumftance, that I could not perhaps have distinguished the one from the other, before the experiment was tried; and I have known feveral other manures that have producedeffects equally oppofite on foils apparently alike. Let no one therefore conclude, although his trials of the manure fhould prove abortive, that others will not find it anfwer with them; neither let him rafhly infer, that because others have had wonderful fuccefs, he is certain of experiencing the fame. A fpirited improver will always endeavour to advance whenever he fees a path opened before him; but if he has prudence, he will advance with cautious circumfpection, and ftop whenever experience teaches him he can go no farther with profit. With thefe cautions, I willingly lay the following interesting papers before my readers.

Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman in the State of Pennfylvania to his Friend in Quebec.

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"You have inclofed fome account of the experiments" and ufe of the gypfum, or plafter of Paris; if any further communication be neceffary, you shall have it.

"I fee by an account of a late publication of Arthur Young's, he mentions it as being useful as a manure,

but how far he has published the use of it in England, I do not know, as yet I have not been able to procure a fight of his treatise.

This manure has produced a great revolution in agriculture. The fine watered and banked meadows in this country, are no longer held in the eftimation they were; our dry poor uplands, from the effect of this, valuable and cheap manure, are infinitely more productive, and more valuable, than the best low lands, I mean for grafs: in (hort, the value of farm-yard manure is alfo much leffened; for it is cheaper for the farmer to purchase the plafter at two-thirds of a dollar per bufhel, for his grafs land, than to draw out his dung thereon.

"This discovery exceeds credibility; it puzzles the philofopher, and astonishes the farmer. Indeed, it tells us all reafoning hitherto extended to the principles of vegetation, was without foundation; and that the human race are in a total ftate of ignorance refpecting it." Experiments on Gypfum as a Manure.

IN anfwer to your queries refpecting gypfum or plafter of Paris, I shall give you as full information as I can, confiftent with my own and neighbour's experiments.

The best kind is imported from hills in the vicinity of Paris; it is brought down the Sene by water, and is exported from Havre de Grace. I am informed there are large beds of it up the Bay of Fundy, fome of which I have feen nearly as good as that from France; but feveral cargoes brought from thence to Philadelphia, have been ufed without effect. It is probable this was taken from the top of the ground, and was, by the influence of the fun and atmosphere, difpoffeffed of the qualities neceflary for the purpose of vegetation. The lumps compofed of flat fhining Specularis, are preferred to thofe which are formed of round particles like fand; when pulverized, and put dry in an iron pot over the fire, that which is good will foon boil, and great quantities of the fixed air efcape by ebulition. It is pulve

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rized by first stamping it in á ftamping mill, and then grinding it in a common grift mill. The finer its pulverization, the better; it will thereby be more generally diffufed. It is best to fow it in a wet day; but if that is not convenient, it should be a little moiftened, when you can fow it at any time. The most approved quantify for grafs, is fix bufhels per acre. No art is required in fowing it, more than making its diftribution as equal as pollible on the fward of grafs. It operates altogether as a top manure, and therefore fhould' not be put on in the fpring, until the operation of the froft is over, nor until vegetation hath begun. The general time for fowing it is in April, May, June, July, Auguft, and even as late as September. Its effect will generally appear in ten or fifteen days; after which the growth of the grafs will be fo great as to produce a large burden at the end of fix weeks after fowing. It must be sown on dry land, not fubject to overflow. I have fown it on fand, loam, and clay; and it is difficult to say on which it has beft anfwered, although the ef-i fect is fooner visible on the fand... It has been used as a manure in this State for upwards of twelve years. Its duration may, from the best information I can collect, be estimated from feven to ten years; for, like other manures, its continuance muft very much depend on the nature of the foil on which it is placed. One of my neighbours fowed a piece of his grafs ground fix years ago another fowed a field four years ago a great part of my own farm was fown in May 1788.We regularly mow two crops, and pasture in the Autumn. No appearance of failure, the prefent crop being full as good as any preceding. I have this feafon mowed about fifty acres of red clover, timothy, white clover, &c. which were plastered laft May, July, and September. Many who faw the grafs, eftimated the produce at two tons per acre; but I calculate for the two crops three tons. Several trips were left in the different

fields without plafter; thefe were unproductive,and not worth mowing.

In April 1788, I covered a fmall piece of grafs ground upwards of two inches thick, with farm-yard manure, in the fame worn-out field. I fowed plafter to contraft it with the dung. I mowed the dunged and plattered land twice laft year, and once this: in every crop, the plafter has produced the most. You will remember, in all your experiments with clover, you should mix about one third of timothy-grafs feed; it is of great, advantage in ferving as a fupport for the clover, as it prevents it from falling; it very much facilitates the airing of the clover, and when aired, is a fuperior fodder. The plafter operates equally as well on the other graffes as on clover. Its effect is faid to be good, if fown in the fpring, on wheat; but this, I cannot fay from experience. On Indian corn, I know its operation to be great. We use it at the rate of a table fpoonful for a hill, put on immediately after dreffing. From fome accurate experiments last year, and reported to our Agriculture Society, it appears, that nine bushels of additional corn per acre was produced by this much of plafter. As the use of this cheap and extraordinary manure has now become very general in this State, and many accurate and judicious farmers are now making experiments therewith, I doubt not but its ufes at the close of the season will be better known and further extended; when I fhall be happy to make a communication thereof to you.

Experiments, c. on the Plafter of Paris, made in the Province of Pennsylvania ;-Communicated by a Gentleman in Quebec, Member of the Agricultural Society. Copy of a Letter from Robert Morris to Jeffe Lawrence.

"After the conversation which paffed between thee and me, on the subject of plaster of Paris, I conceived it might not be improper to give thee an account of the feveral trials which I have made with it as a manure

for land. Perhaps it might have been in the year 1775, that it was recommended to me as a manure for land; I accordingly purchased five bushels; yet my faith therein was fo weak, that it lay by me until 1778, when, in the month of March, I fowed at the rate of two bushels and a half per acre, on fome ground which I had tilled and fowed with clover feed, the fpring preceding, leaving a piece in the middle not fown, and likewise on each fide. That feafon where there was no plafter fown, the clover flood on the ground about twelve inches high; 'but where the plafter was fown,the clover flood upon an average, thirty-four inches high. This ground I mowed for about four feafons after; I found it to have lefs grafs every year, though that which was fown with the plafter had as much more in proportion as the first year. I afterwards ploughed up all this ground, except a quarter of an acre; upon this I again put plafter of Pais, in the year 1785, and no other manure whatever fince 1778; and it is now in much better order than it was at that time, and it has produced me about two tons of hay every year fince, for the first crop, and a tolerable good fecond crop, and sometimes a third crop, or very good pasture; though the last time I manured it I put in the proportion of fix bufhels of plafter to an acre. I have likewife made many experiments otherwife; I have tried it with Indian corn, where it does tolerably well; with buck-wheat, and it makes it grow fo rapidly, that it has always fallen down, and I have loft my crop. I have tried it with wheat, and it is not poffible to difcover that it makes any difference when fown on the crop but when it is fown on grafs ground, and this ground turned up and laid down in wheat, it is amazing the advantage it is of to the crop. Laft fall was a year, 1. put down about eight acres of wheat, which I harrowed in, and then fowed clover feed, which came up and looked very fine in the fall; but the winter being very fevere, with but little fnow, the clover was dead in the spring; when I fowed it again with

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