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ducts instead of feeding them, raising liay and grain for sale would seem to have been 

 the most profitable the past year; indeed for several years past. But we shrink from, 

 this method because we think a man in pursuing it would be just hauling his farm 

 off to the city. Dauphin : Trucking, in connection with general farming, has perhaps, 

 on the whole, been the most profitable with us. Elk: By the majority hay for sale 

 would be said to be the most profitable. Latterly butter-making has paid about as 

 ■well. Among the minor crops potatoes are the most remunerative. The high price of 

 labor renders all other plowed crops unprofitable, except what can be raised without 

 hired labor. 



Maryland. — Cecil : Growing cereals is the principal business of agriculture in this 

 county ; a few combine with this grazing and dairying. These are considered more 

 profitable. 



YinGiNiA.— Botetourt : Find it profitable to grow wheat, corn, tobacco, grass, oats, 

 and a good stock of cattle. Wheat, tobacco, and corn are our great money-crops. 

 Page : On the 8th and 9th of April I sowed, broadcast, 4 bushels of Excelsior oats on 

 ^i acres, from which I thrashed 180 bushels, weighing 49 pounds per bushel. At the 

 vsame time, and in the same field, I sowed 5 bushels of Norway oats, from which I 

 thrashed 230 bushels, weighing 38 pounds per bushel. King and Queen : Wheat and 

 oats. The wheat-crop was not a large yield, 6 to 8 bushels per acre, but the price, 

 $1.50 to $1.75, made it a profitable crop. The oat-crop was more marked in its results, 

 making 2 tons to the acre, and selling to the lumber-men in our county at $1.25 to 

 $1.30 per 100 pounds. Westmoreland : The chief crops are corn, wheat, and oats, with a 

 little of stock-growing, fruit, truck, and some few try tobacco. 



NoKTii Carolina. — Yancey : Corn and wheat. Warren : Cotton and tobacco are the 

 only crops made for sale. Bertie : Mixed farming was without question the only profit- 

 able mode of agriculture. Cotton is the only crop here that commands ready money, 

 and the farmer who produces his provisions for his farm and then as much cot- 

 ton as his lands and labor will permit, is the only successful worker of the lands. 

 Franklin : Cotton can be profitably cultivated here if farmers raise their own supplies. 

 Mr. Henry Pearn made last year 40 bags, 430 pounds each, on 28 acres of land ; and 176 

 barrels of corn on 32 acres. His profits were largely in excess of his outlay. Most 

 farmers, however, cultivate cotton to the exclusion of everything else, and the re- 

 sult is that it takes the proceeds of their cotton to buy supplies. Gaston : The cereals 

 and cotton the important products, and unquestionably the most profitable, where the 

 economy of the farmer is directed to the production of all supplies the land will pro- 

 duce ; cotton takes less from the laud than the cereals, is most easily marketed, and most 

 profitable for market. Boheson : Ours are mixed crops, though not so much so as they 

 should be. Mecklenhurg : Farmers who cultivate corn, wheat, oats, rye, and cottou 

 have made the most money. 



South Carolina. — York : One acre of our best uplands, well fertilized, will yield 

 one bale of cotton, worth, at 15 cents, §67.50. After deducting cost of production, in- 

 cluding labor, $22.50 ; horse-power, $10 ; implements and manures, $10 ; preparing for 

 market, $6 ; seed, &c., $4 ; total, $52.50 : the planter receives, net, about $15 per acre 

 from his best lands. The same acre of laud, planted in Irish potatoes in February 

 or March, with careful culture, will produce 200 to 350 bushels. Taking the lowest 

 estimate, 200, the proceeds are worth at the lowest rates, $150. Manure, labor, har- 

 vesting, and marketing (in bulk) can be effected at a cost not exceeding $7.5, leaving 

 a net profit of $75 per acre. In the same way I might satisfy any one familiar with 

 the climate and locality of the larger profit in the production of cabbages, onions, 

 fruits, &c. The result of inquiry leads directly to the answer that the largest profits 

 are obtained from diversified agricultural industry. Union : Whenever our best farmers 

 plant altogether cotton, the profits are not so great as when a farmer of the same 

 ability plants mixed crops. Many planted almost entirely cottou. Sales brought 9 

 to 14 cents. Our intelligent farmers are waking up to the necessity of improving the 

 land and considering that a part of the year's profit. When they do that, and get 

 some of our old fields, now worth $4 to $10 per acre, to be worth $50 per acre, then our 

 people will begin to open their eyes to their best interests. 



Georgia. — Johnson : We are small farmers and try to make our own bread, pork, 

 potatoes, sugar, and sirup, and after this, produce as much cotton as we can for market. 

 We sell some wool, pork, beef, and poultry, but in quantities scarcely worth men- 

 tioning. Meriwether : Those planters have done best and made most clear money who 

 have raised provisions at home and only made cotton their surplus crop. They, almost 

 without exception, have done well. Pike : Grain and grasses. The few who have 

 clover in cultivation realized a good income from it. The yield was as high as 2 tons 

 per acre at the first cutting, and it was worth as ranch per acre afterward for grazing 

 cattle and hogs. On three acres of clover and orchard-grass, I grazed last season 20 

 hogs from the 10th of March to the 15th of August, not feeding them more than 5 

 bushels of corn. During the same time I grazed three milch-cows, but exclusively at 

 night. All these failed to keej) down the clover till warm weather set in. The 3 acres 

 were worth to me at least $125. and lull as much the year before. Besides, my land is 



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