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I do hereby certify, that the above-named Henry Wynkoop, is a person of undoubted good character, and worthy of credit; and I do alfo further teftify, that the plafter of Paris is much ufed as a manure, in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, and that it is generally held in high estimation by those who have tried it as a manure.

SAMUEL POWELL,
Prefident of the Agricultural Society.

Philadelphia, June 30, 1789.

Letter on the Use of Plafter of Paris as a Manure, taken from a Publication, intituled, THE AMERICAN Mu

SEUM.

"HAVING, for four years paft, made ufe of a large quan-" tity of plaster of Paris or gypfum as a manure upon a variety of foils, and under different circumstances, I beg leave to lay before you the refult of my experiments, together with fome obfervations refpecting the nature of this foffil. I am the more anxious to comply with my duty to the fociety inthis refpect, becaufe many of our fellow citizens are losing the great advantage to be derived from the ufe of this ma nure; entertaining an opinion, that it does not in itself contain any nutriment to plants, but that it acts merely as a ftimulus to the foil, by which, although vegetation is for a fhort time rapidly promoted, yet the ground becomes exhaufted, and is left a dead inert mafs.

1. In the year 1785, I fowed three acres of light ifinglafs foil, containing a little clay, with barley and clover.. In the month of April the following year, I divided the field into three parts, and ftrewed fix bushels of French gypfum on No. 1; the fame quantity of the American gypfum, brought from the bay of Fundy, on No. 2; and left the in termediate space, No. 3, without any. On cutting the first crop, that year, little difference could be obferved; the fecond crop produced double the quantity of grafs, where the gypfum had been put; and in the fucceeding year, the difference was ftill greater, in favour of this manure. Early in October 1787, the clover lay was ploughed once, about four inches deep, was fowed with rye, and in that rough ftate, was harrowed. The rye was of a fuperior quality,

*This is a diftin&tion of foils not known in this country. Edit:

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and double the quantity on No. 1 and 2, of that on No. 3. After harveft, the rye-ftubble was ploughed, and fowed with buck-wheat, when a ftriking difference was ftill obfervable in favour of the gypfum, and which continues in the prefent crop of Indian corn.

2. In April 1787, I fowed three acres of potatoe ground, (a light loam), with barley and clover. Juft as the barley was above ground, fome gypfum was ftrewed diagonally across the field, about eight feet wide. Little or no difference could be obferved in the barley; but in the month of September following, there was a ftriking difference in the clover, in favour of the manure, which would have afforded a good crop of hay, whilft the remainder of the field was but indifferent. I have frequently put gypfum upon grain, without obferving any immediate difference in the appearance of the crops.

3. In April 1786, fix acres of poor ifinglass foil, fituated on German-Town hill, were fowed with oats, the ground. not having been manured for twenty years; it produced a crop not paying expences. In April 1787, one half of the field was covered with gypfum, fix bufhels to the acre. The latter end of the fame fummer, that part on which the manure had been put, produced good pafture of blue glafs and white clover, whilst the remainder afforded little but a few fcattered weeds. In October, the field was ploughed once, and fowed with rye; at harvest, the former produced ten bufhels to the acre, the latter not above five.

4. A field of fifteen acres, a light loam, was, in April 1784, fowed with barley and clover, the produce only twenty bushels to the acre, the ground not having been fufficiently manured. In 1785, it produced a good firft, and a tolerable fecond crop of clover. In 1786, the first crop but tolerable; the fecond very indifferent, and therefore paftured. In the fpring 1787, I wifhed to try if gypfum would not renew the clover. In the month of April, the whole field was covered with gypfum, fix bufhels to the acre, except the width of twenty feet, through the middle of the field. St. John's wort, mullain, and other weeds had taken fuch poffeffion of the ground, that, although the manure produced a great luxuriance of grafs, yet, being full of weeds, it did not anfwer for hay; and therefore was paftured until October 1788: The whole was then ploughed

eight inches deep, with a ftrong three-horfe Dutch plough: Laft April, it was well harrowed, and cross-ploughed, four inches deep, with a light two-horfe plough, leaving the fod at the bottom. The field was fowed with fpring barley; at harveft, the difference of the crop was aftonifhingly great in favour of the part where the gypfum had been put, two years before. This ground is now under wheat and winter-barley, which have a promifing appearance: the rotted fod being turned up and mixed with the foil, affords a strong nourishment to the prefent crop.

5. I put a quantity of gypfum, three years ago, on feveral fmall patches of rough fod; it produced a difference in the ftrength of the vegetation, which is ftill obfervable."

What follows of this paper contains no experiments, but fome reasoning on the nature of this fubftance, which we think unneceffary here to tranfcribe.-Several other experiments follow, that have fo much the fame refult with. the preceding, that it is thought unneceffary to tranfcribe them. There, are, however, fome circumftances of variation, in the following, that deferve notice.

PENNSYLVANIA, June 1, 1790.

"I wrote to you some time ago, refpecting our manuring with the plafter of Paris: I have now experienced it upwards of three years; others have used it upwards of fifteen: It exceeds any thing ever known. Pray prevail on fome perfon to fow a small quantity of red clover on a dry foil; a few days will evince its power. Six bufhels to the acre I ufe, and it is preferable to fifty loads of the beft dung. This you must think extravagant; it is fo, and yet true. I have contrafted it, for three years with dung in that proportion, and the refult is my affertion : 1 have upwards of one hundred acres now under plafter, applied in various ways, and on different foils; it has in no inftance failed; the last I made, I fhall relate as follows:

"In April 1789, I ploughed the end of a poor fand hill, which by long and bad culture had been totally exhausted; it contained no grafs, but was covered with wild onions; the next day after ploughing, I fowed it with oats, clover, VOL. I.

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and timothy; when the oats were a few inches high, I sowed a ftrip through the middle of the field with platter; the ground being poor, the oats were not knee high at harvest; the clover where the plafter was not fown, was very fmall and poor; but the flrip on which the plafter was fown, produced clover near as high as the oats. As foon as the cats were cut, I fowed all the ftubble with plafter; in October, the ground produced upwards of a ton and an half per acre; and I now think the crop fuperior to the beft acre you ever faw §.

"The land I fowed three years ago, I mow twice, and pafture the bad crop; not the leaft failure yet appears; I intend to renew a part of it, by way of experiment, with three bufhels of plafter per acre, after my first mowing, which will be in eight days.

"It is generally efteemed to continue good from five to feyen years; it is much used in this country, and is travelling weftward and eastward. I faw laft week feveral fields done with it near Reading, in this ftate, about fixty miles from the river. A fpoonful on a hill of Indian corn, will increase the quantity about ten bufhels per acre, and it is found to ripen two weeks earlier. The grafs as well as hay raised from it, is found more nutritive than any other; fo much fo, that cattle fatten in near half the time. Were I to write a volume, I could not tell you all its advantages.

"The foil of the plantation of the above winter is warm, being a loam, more or lefs mixed with fand, having a few. inches of black mould on the furface, and not a cold clay.

"The plafter generally made ufe of in the United States of America, is imported from Havre de Grace, and some from Halifax, in Nova Scotia, but of a much inferior quality, unless got in depth, and not near the furface of the earth. The plafter is found in Yorkshire, and in fome other parts of the kingdom, but whether equal in quality to that in France, experiments will difcover."

Annals of Agriculture.

$ No notice is here taken of the ftrip in the middle, that appears to have been twice covered with gypfum."

This account has much the air of exaggeration. Edit.

Edit

Parish of Holywood, from Sir John Sinclair's fatifical Account of Scotland, concluded from page 318.

Population.On the laft day of the year 1790, there were living in the parish of Holywood 736 perfons, of whom there were,

Under ten years of age,
Between ten and twenty,
Above twenty unmarried,
Widowers or widows,
Married, !+

166

146

160

40

224

736

Out of the 736 perfons, 11 were between 80 and go years old, which is an uncommon number among fo few inhabitants. The return to Dr. Webster of the population of Holywood, about forty years ago, was 612 fouls; the inhabitants have therefore increased 124 fince that period.

Abstract of the Baptifms, Marriages and Burials for the laft ten Years.

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16

48

5

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20

8

II

8

14

II

8

8

10

108

Yearly average

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nearly, The great number of deaths in 1782, was owing to an infectious fever in the weft part of the parish, where the valley is narroweft; and the large number in 1786, was owing to the ravages of the natural small pox.

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