The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1843-06-21
AGRICULTURAL.
From the New England Farmer.
GYPSUM OR PLASTER,

Plaster, first introduced into the United
States from Paris by DIR. Franklin, has eff
fected the most important improven ent in
agriculture perhaps that ever has been made
Extensive districts in this and other countries
have been benefited by its introduction to
an extent which, considering the compare
lively snail amount ofthe substances employ
cd is truly astonishing. la Germany, says
Lampodius, one of hel own agricultural
writers, q" 1t may with certainty be stated,
that by the use of gypsum, the produce of
clover and the consequent amount of live
stock have been increased al least one third.
There are, however, some tracts of
country where the Use of plaster has been
attempted without Success But this arose
from its being one ofthe original constituents
of the soil, which derived no advantage
from the addition of new quantity. The
existence of this salt naturally, in those lands
upon which plaster produced little or no eff
feet, has been proved by analysis, Chap
tai, p. 70.
Much mystery has heretofore enveloped
the modus operandi of this manure but be-
fore the light OF science the cloud is vanish
ing away. Many have supposed its efficacy
is to arise from the specific food which is
furnished to certain plants, as to clover, for
instance, which seems especially benefited
by its application. But when we consider
that by the application of a handful, as it
were, of this manure, upon an acre of good
ground, the product is increased from few
hundreds TO tons ofgrass, il is apparent that,
on such a supposltion. the cause is wholly
Inadequate TO the effect. 1t was reserved
for the gifted and honored Liebig to lift the
veil, and to produce theory, not only plau-
.ible in itself, but fully sustained in all parts
by the experience of practicle men.
His theory is this: that the efficacy ofplas-
ter consists in its arresting, as it rises in ex-
halations from the soil, or decends in rain,
dew or snow from the atmosphere, the am
monia which is generated by the decay of
animal mater and appropriating 1t to the
use of the growing crop. We will permit
him to present his own views, however, in a
few extracts from his Organic Chemistry.
Nitrogen exists in every part of the veg
etable structure.n-p. So. GAIL animal -
land vegetable] "bodies, during their decay
yield the nitrogen which they contain, to the
atmosphere, in the form of ammonia "-p
y. "The evident influence of gypsum de-
ponds only upon its fixing in the soil the am
monia of the atmosphere. which would 9TH
erwise be volatilized, with the water which
evaporates.''-p. IS 60 In order to form a
COlICtptlOu vi tHt tilsCl Vi RNpSuUl, IL Ildl
he sufficient to remark that 100 lbs. of burn
ed gypsum fixes as much ammonia in the
soil as 6250 lbs. of horses urine would yield
to tip. So. a" If field be strewed with
gypsum, and then with purified urine, or
the draining of dung hills. all the carbonic of
ammonia will be converted into the sulphate
which will remain in the soil."-p. lS4. &c If
we strew the floors of our stables from time,
10 time with common gypsum, they will lose
all their offensive smell. and none of the am
monia which forms can be lost, but will be
retained IN a condition serviceable as a ma
nure."-p. Use. = But this is not all. When
we give plant nitrogen in considerable
quantity, we enable it 10 attract with greater
energy from the atmosphere, the carbon
which is necessary for its nutrition. "-13S.
Now " carbon enters into the composition of
all plants."-3. So that, by strewing field
with gypsum, we enable plants to supply
themselves from the atmosphere, not only
with n troren, on which their most nutritious
principles depend, but also with carbon, the
chief constituent of all their frame work.
This theory is confirmed by several cir
cumstances which have long attracted the
attention of the observing farmer.
|. 1t has been observed that plaster acts
with increased efficacy when applied in con-
nection with manuIes, or recently MANFRED
lands. The solution of the phenomena by
our theory is easy and satisfactory. The
ammonia, which would otherwise escape
from the decomposing manure into the at
mosphere, is seized upon by the plaster, de-
tanned in the soil, and wholly converted to
the use of the growing crop.
3 1t has been observed that plaster acts
with greater power on soils which have been
recently stirred, than on those which have
lain for long time unmoyed. Solution-by
stirring the soil its poi osity is increased; con-
sequently it obsorbs more freely the dews
that fall upon it-from which the plaster sep
hates and boards up in the soil the rich de-
posts of the atmosphere. In proof of the
extent to which the atmosphere with fertil-
izng matters, which the rams and dews are
constantly depositing upon the surface Of the
earth, we will here introduce the substance
of statement made to the American ed
itor of Liebig, by Mr.. E. Tufts, of Charles
town.
Eight years sine, about three quarters
Of an acre of land situated on one side of a
Il. &c