68 



5. Wnat percentage, if any, of the value of your crops is sold to go out of the 

 county? What is the leading crop thns sold ? What proportion, if any, of your farm- 

 animals is sold to go beyond the county ? 



6. What products of agriculture are brought into the county for consumption, and 

 ■what percentage of the home consumption f What farm-animals, if any, are brought 

 from abroad, and to what extent ? 



7. Has your county derived any advantage the past year from association and co- 

 operation, in marketing crops, or in procuring supplies"? Ifso, cau you give an ap- 

 proximate estimate of the aggregate sum thus saved? Individual facts in this con- 

 nection will be acceptable. 



LOCAL PPvEFERENCES FOR FERTILIZERS. 



The investigation demonstrates the fact that farmers are learning the 

 necessity of increasing the store of plant-food in the soil, of having it 

 in an immediately available form, and of supplementing notable defi- 

 ciencies with specific fertilizers. They are becoming better versed in the 

 I)hilosophy of fertilization, and better able to adapt their practice to the 

 peculiarities of their soils, and to their local resources in material for 

 fertilization, both by an increase in theoretical or scientific knowledge 

 and in experience gained in successful application of such acquirement. 

 ]Sot all are thus intelligent; a large proportion yet see by the dim light 

 of tradition, and follow only methods found successful in their personal 

 observation, often with little regard to differing circumstances of soil 

 and situation. It is true, nevertheless, that the average practice of these 

 practical men is essentially sound, and really based on reason and sci- 

 ence. 



Though half of the counties in the United States are cultivated al- 

 most literally without fertilizers of any sort, and another fourth with 

 the casual aid of green manuring, or a little lime, or plaster, or cotton- 

 seed, or a "cow-penned" lot, or some trifling saving of farm-yard 

 manure, it is still true the practice of systematic fertilization is increas- 

 ing. It is not only increasing, but is followed with a better adaptation 

 of means to ends, and with a superior economy in the choice of material. 



" What fertilizers are used in your county?" The following table, 

 which gives the proportions of farm-yard manures and other fertilizers, 

 presents the average of the returns of each State, and doubtless with 

 sufficient accuracy for the purposes of the investigation, of the true 

 averages of all the counties of the several States. In examining the 

 figures it must be remembered that they indicate percentages of what- 

 ever fertilizers may be actually employed, however small in quantity or 

 unimportant in value, which are almost too insignificant for estimate in 

 the States west of the Alleghanies : 



States. 



Maine 



New Hampshire 

 Vermoiit...' ... 

 Massachusetts . . 

 Rhode Island . . . 



Connecticut 



New York 



New Jersey 



Penn.sylvania . . . 



Delaware 



Maryland 



Virginia 





P.ct. 

 27 

 16 

 15 

 25 

 22 

 19 

 32 

 31 

 24 

 28 

 CO, 

 41 



states. 



North Carolina 

 South Carolina. 



Georgia 



Florida 



Alabama 



Mississippi 



Louisiana 



Texas 



Arkansas 



Tennessee 



West Virginia. 

 Kentucky 



S 3 



P.ct 

 51 

 26 

 33 

 45 

 53 

 60 



P.ct. 

 49 

 74 

 67 

 55 

 47 

 40 



States. 



la 



Ohio 



Michigan . 

 Indiana . . . 



Illinois 



Wisconsin 

 Minnesota 



Iowa 



Missouri . . 

 Kansas ... 

 Nebraska . 

 California. 



P.ct. 



85 



73 



84 



95 



90 



98 



100 



95 



100 



100 



98 



P.ct. 

 13 

 27 

 10 

 5 

 10 



