e than the other. I have
never yet found a farmer who would believe that a ton of clover-hay,
rotted down in the barn-yard, would make three or four tons of manure;
but he would readily assent to the proposition, that it took four or
five tons of green clover to make a ton of hay; and that if these four
or five tons of green-clover were rotted in the yard, it would make
three or four tons of manure. And yet, the only difference between the
green-clover and the hay, is, that the latter has lost some 60 or 70 per
cent of water in curing. Add that amount of water to the hay, and it
will make as much manure as the green-clover from which the hay was
made.

GYPSUM AND CLOVER AS MANURE.

A good farmer came in while we were talking. "Nothing like plaster and
clover," he said, "for keeping up a wheat-farm." And you will find this
the general opinion of nearly all American wheat-growers. It must be
accepted as a fact. But the deductions drawn from the fact are as
various as they are numerous.

Let us look first at the fact. And, if you like, we will take my own
farm as an example. About 60 years ago, it was covered with the primeval
forest. The trees, on the higher and drier land, were first cut down,
and many of them burnt on the land. Wheat was sown among the stumps. The
crop varied in different years, from 10 to 30 bushels per acre. When 30
bushels were grown, the fact was remembered. When 10 bushels only were
grown, little was said about it in after years, until now there is a
general impression that our wheat crops were formerly much larger per
acre than now. I doubt it; but we will not discuss the point. One thing
is certain, the land would produce good crops of clover; and when this
clover was plowed under for manure, we got better crops of wheat
afterwards. This was the rule. Later, we commenced to use gypsum as a
top-dressing on clover. The effect was often wonderful. Farmers will
tell you that they sowed 200 lbs. of plaster per acre, on their young
clover, in the spring, and it _doubled the crop_. This statement
expresses an agricultural, and not an arithmetical fact. We do not know
that the crop on the plastered portion was twice as heavy as on the
unplastered. We know that it was larger, and more luxuriant. There was a
greater, and more vigorous growth. And this extra growth was caused by
the small top-dressing of powdered gypsum rock. It was a great fact in
agriculture. I will call it fact, No. 1.

Then, when