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the former, which measurably escaped the devastations of the late civil 
war, farming appears of late to be prosecuted with greater energy 
and success, and to have embraced within its scope a more earnest 
effort for the permanent improvement of thesoil. Special efforts in this 
direction are reported in Frederick, Caroline, and Howard Counties. 
Barn-yard manure is the special reliance in such movements, but lime 
is of very frequent application. Wicomico County uses about 100,000 
bushels per annum; Frederick spreads 40 or 50 bushels of lime per acre. 
In Queen Anne it is applied in moderate quantities to clover before 
plowing for corn, and then 500 pounds of superphosphates per acre are 
placed on corn-ground to be plowed for wheat. This application, it is said, 
will double the wheat crop and treble or quadruple the subsequent 
clover crop, besides leaving the ground in better condition for subsequent 
tillage, while the use of only 100 pounds of superphosphates would 
do a positive injury by causing the crop to run to straw. Commercial 
fertilizers, however, are generally less used. Clovering is considerably. 
practiced in the western counties. 
In Virginia the majority of our reports show little or no effort for soil- 
improvement. The waste of the late war and the change in the labor sys- 
tem are alleged as the reasons of this backwardness. This, however, 
is not universally the case. In Cumberland County, ‘ within the last two 
years considerable advance has been made in the improvement of lands 
owing to the increased circulation of agricultural works and the dissem- 
ination of better varieties of seed.” Intelligent farmers in Khockingham 
are making strenuous efforts, saving manure, composting, clovering, 
&e. In Williamsburgh County— 
Great efforts were made by farmers, followed by many and disastrous failures, in 
their attempts to improve their lands with the modern quack fertilizers ; finally they 
have determined to use nothing but lime and the farm products, and which we con- 
sider the only salvation of the farming interests of this county. 
Experiments in clovering have been quite unsuccessful lately on ac- 
count of the extreme drought. Commercial fertilizers have greatly 
disappointed expectations, but lime has produced very favorable results. 
In North Carolina some isolated efforts are made by intelligent men 
to improve their lands, but generally the idea itself is entertained by 
few. As an excuse for inaction it is alleged in some quarters that crops 
are seldom housed till after Christmas, and that the weather after that 
period is too cold for out-door labor. This from the latitude of North 
Carolina will sound oddly to northern and western farmers, who find 
time for extensive and important farm labors during each winter. In 
South Carolina the phosphates, of which large deposits have been found 
in that State, are extensively applied, but not always with intelligent 
reference to their specific effects. These applications are mostly made 
for immediate results and not for permanent improvement, which ap- 
pears to be but little regarded. Georgia makes an extensive use of com- 
mercial fertilizers upon cotton. Gwinnett County consumed about 2,000 
tons during 1872. In Franklin County they have been applied at rates 
varying from 300 to 1,000 pounds per acre. In a few counties, such as 
Gordon, clover is raised in increasing quantities, and in some cases 
has been plowed under in full growth. Of the lands within ten miles 
of railroads in this county about 25 per cent. are in clover. The diii- 
culties.of recuperative farming are thus stated by a correspondent in 
Talbot County : 
Nothing is regarded by farmers so profitable as cotton. The lands generally produce 
such small crops of corn that it will not pay the expense of the laborers we are obliged 
to employ, owing to the fact of their having buat little regard for loss of time, even 
