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farm-.yard manure only, quite a number stating that tliat is little used. 

 Fayette and Kankakee report that gypsum has been tried and not found 

 profitable. Passing into Wisconsin, gypsum again becomes popular. 

 More than half the returns report the use of it, and none specify unfa- 

 vorable results. Lime is used to a considerable extent, but no other 

 commercial fertilizer is reported. 



In Minnesota, out of thirty-six returns, the exclusive use of farm-yard 

 manure is reported in all, except salt in Crow-Wing, with good effect ; 

 gypsum, lime, and compost, in Olmstead ; lime in Isanti, and ashes and 

 lime in Steele. Out of fifty-three returns from Iowa, but a single county 

 reports the use of any other fertilizer than farm-yard manure. In Dela- 

 ware County, a small quantity of gypsum was used last year, for the first 

 time, with profitable results. The case is not much different in Missouri. 

 Grundy reports the use of some bone-dust with profit ; Kodaway, that 

 lime, gypsum, and ashes are highly valued by the best farmers ; Calla- 

 way, that some guano is used on fine tobacco, as it is thought to yellow 

 it and make it ripen sooner; Washington, that some lime has been tried 

 and found profitable ; and Cape Girardeau, that gypsum is applied to 

 clover. These are the only returns out of over sixty which report any 

 use of commercial fertilizers. In Kansas, Nebraska, California, and the 

 Territories, their use is as yet unknown. 



Home-made composts. — Eeturns generally concur in reporting an 

 increasing use of composts mixed on the farm. They especially indicate, 

 in the cotton States, a growing conviction, confirmed by the results of 

 experiments, that it is far more safe and economical to buy commercial 

 ingredients known to be suitable to combine with manure and other 

 composting elements on the farm, than to pay the extravagant price 

 demanded for commercial compounds, which often prove to be adul- 

 terated and comparatively worthless. In New England, barn-cellars 

 are the rule with the best farmers, (but unfortunately this is not the 

 larger class,) and muck, loam, or other material is hauled in to absorb 

 the liquid manure, while the stock is at the barn. The same is true of 

 the hog-pen. In the Eastern States, whenever wood-ashes are made 

 they are utilized, leached or unleached, in supplementing farm-manure, 

 sometimes in composts, but perhaps oftener in the hill or drill. Lime, 

 with scrapings from the road-side, and whatever refuse is available, 

 enter into composts. In the Northern Atlantic States, on the coast, 

 manure on the farm is extensively supplemented by marine fertilizers, 

 as muscle-mud, sea-weed, fish refuse, &c., all of which are very profit- 

 able. In the neighborhood of cities, fertilizing matter of all kinds, 

 which accumulates in them, enters largely into composts. The return 

 from Camden, N. J., for instance, reports that thousands of loads of street- 

 sweepings from Philadelphia, mixed with stable-manure in the propor- 

 tion of 2 to 1, are used as a highly valued fertilizer. In the Southern 

 States mineral or other commercial ingredients enter more largely into 

 composts with cotton-seed and farm manure. Edgecomb, N. C, reports 

 a system of composting, which, though it involves a combination of ele- 

 ments not in accordance with received opinions, has produced the 

 best results for more than twenty years. The ingredients are soil or 

 subsoil, (often more valuable in composting than worn soil,) not too 

 sandy, cotton-seed, or any material which will ferment, any animal ma- 

 nure, and shell-marl, lime, or ashes. The proportions are about] bushel 

 of cotton-seed (or its equivalent in other vegetable manure) to 35 of 

 earth, 5 of animal-manure, and from 40 to 60 of marl or lime ; all to be 

 thoroughly mixed. Our reporter has lands which he has cultivated in 



