74 



time comes again they say, " Believe I will try it once more." Harris: Not valuable 

 or profitable, except a few chemicals needed to make compost with manure and cotton- 

 seed. Baldwin : Farm-yard manure more profitable. Murray : Farm-yard maunre pref- 

 erable by far. Columbia : Farmers have at length found ont that they were " paying 

 too dear for the whistle." Decatur : Not so many use them as formerlj\ Cherokee : 

 Home-made composts have proved much more profitable. Trouj) : Farmers beginning 

 to see the folly of using so much of fertilizers to the neglect of home-made manures- 

 Will use next spring not more than one- third the previous quantity. Henry : Will be 

 less used, as farmers are making two-thirds compost, or phosphate and farm-yard 

 manure. Gwinnett : Farm-yard manure entered but little into fertilizers until last year j 

 then it was composted with " chemicals." The composts at a cost of one-third of com- 

 mercial guano were equally valuable. Jefferson : Farm-yard manure composted with 

 cotton-seed more valuable. 



The most prominent returns of favorable results are from De Kalb, 

 wliere 1,500 tons are used, mostly for cotton, at an average cost of $60 

 per ton, wbich i)ay a very good i^rofit ; in Houston, where 2,000 tons are 

 used; in McDuffie, giving 20 to 30 per cent, of profit; and in Carroll, 

 very profitable when the land is well worked. West of Georgia com- 

 mercial fertilizers are little used. 



A large majority of returns from Alabama declare them unprofitable. 

 Cotton-seed is largely composted with manure and other ingredients, 

 and farm-yard manure constitutes about 53 per cent, of the whole. In 

 Shelby, commercial fertilizers, when not used in connection with vege- 

 table matter, are considered a positive injury ; in Conecuh, used in 

 1867-'70, but very little since, proving less profitable each year; in 

 Bullock, less used last year than for several years previous ; in Pike, 

 while some deem them profitable, many of the best farmers think other- 

 wise; in Lowndes they have been mostly abandoned; but in Russell 

 they are considered very profitable if pure; also in De Kalb, (with the 

 same qualification,) "especially on cotton, increasing the yield 100 to 

 200 per cent.;" in Lauderdale, among them, only gypsum on clover and 

 other grasses has proved profitable. 



From Mississippi few returns with definite specifications have been 

 received. The use of commercial fertilizers appears to be quite limited 

 and not increasing, farm-yard manure and cotton-seed being the main 

 reliance. In Rankin they have been found unprofitable and abandoned;, 

 in Clark, profitable, when the land is subsoiled and the fertilizer covered 

 deep, but manure and cotton-seed are deemed better. Claiborne reports 

 that they iucrea.se the yield one-third-; and Pike, that they are profita- 

 ble in the hands of skillful planters. 



The returns from Louisiana which answer the inquiry report that 

 they are not deemed profitable. In Claiborne they have been tried and 

 abandoned. La Fourche, where bone-dust has been used, is the only 

 parish reporting the jiresent use of any commercial fertilizer. Cotton- 

 seed takes the precedence, then manure and composts. 



Among over fifty returns from Texas no one reports the use of any 

 commercial fertilizer. The same is true of Arkansas, except that Drew 

 reports that guano, superphosphates, &g., were tried on cotton six or 

 seven years, and did not i)ay. In Tennessee, nearly half the returns 

 specify the use of gypsum, largely in connection with clover, and, as in 

 other States, the results are uniformly favorable. Lime is used less 

 extensively, principally as an ingredient in composts. With these ex- 

 ceptions, the use of commercial fertilizers is very limited, and apparently 

 declining. In Greene and Putnam they are less used than formerly; in 

 Wasliington, only used by farmers who drill in wheat, and in that case 

 are very i)rofitable, as they hasten the maturity of the grain. 



In West Virginia the use of commercial fertilizers is very limited. 

 Not including lime and gypsum, which are used to some extent, two-- 



