REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 123 



the intrinsic value 10 per cent., while the cost per ton has been dimin- 

 ished 7 per cent. He reported the inspection of 48,648 tons in the sea- 

 son of 1874, and 5G,59G in 1875, costing $2,481,048 and $2,640,203. 

 The publication of these analyses and results of experiments, especially 

 with composts, had the effect to arouse caution against fraud, and to 

 stimulate the exercise of judicious discrimination in the selection and 

 skill in the composting and use of them. So positive has been this 

 progress, that nearly half of the fertilizers in 1875 were so composted as 

 to yield for every ton four tons of compost, deemed to be of equal value 

 with the uncomposted fertilizer, adding twofold to the volume and 

 value of every ton of commercial fertilizers inspected by the State. 



The formula for a compost extensively used on cotton contains 750 

 pounds each of stable-manure and of green cotton-seed, with 500 pounds 

 of acid phosphate or dissolved bone. Alternate layers of the stable- 

 manure and seed, three or four inches thick, are each sprinkled with the 

 phosphate after thorough moistening with water. When fermentation 

 has destroyed the vitality of the seed, in three to six weeks, the layers 

 are cut through vertically, and the whole mass well pulverized and 

 mixed, and left for further fermentation. Satisfactory results are ob- 

 tained by the application of 200 pounds in the opening furrow and 100 

 in the seed-drill. Some make a heavier application by sowing 400 pounds 

 and applying 100 in the drill. If the ammonia of the manure has been 

 evaporated by exposure, 60 pounds of sulphate of ammonia and 40 of 

 muriate of potash are used, with 650 pounds each of seed and stable- 

 manure and 600 of phosphate. The cost, aside from home materials 

 and labor, is from $7.50 to $10 per ton. 



The estimate of proportion of cultivated area fertilized was not uni- 

 formly given, and may therefore only roughly approximate the truth. 

 So far as they could be consolidated, the averages were 60 per cent, for 

 South Carolina, 42 for Georgia, and 35 for North Carolina. If returns 

 from every county had been received, it is probable the difference be- 

 tween the South Carolina and Georgia estimates might be less. While 

 some commercial fertilizers are applied in Florida and from the Georgia 

 line to the Mississippi, it is true that the field for their sale at present 

 is mainly included in the three States named. The percentage of area 

 fertilized, as averaged, is 10 in Florida, 12 in Alabama, and 15 in Mis- 

 sissippi ; and a large element of this small proportion is cotton-seed or 

 composts. The proportion is scarcely appreciable in Louisiana and 

 Texas, and in Arkansas and in Tennessee experiments in fertilizing 

 are on too limited a scale to make a percentage. Our correspondent in 

 Fayette, Texas, reports no fertilizers used, but expresses the opinion that 

 manure would double the crops on uplands, while the bottoms may be 

 rich enough without manure. 



The practice of fallowing or " resting " the land is a practical protest 

 against the waste of continuous clean culture. The growth of grass 

 and weeds shades and protects the surface, appropriates the ammonia 

 of the atmosphere when plowed under for a croi), and restores to the soil 

 its supply of vegetable matter wasted under the direct rays of a burning 

 sun. Our correspondent in Chickasaw, Mississippi, says: 



The cheapest and. only practicable way of fertilizing large farms is to rest a portion of 

 it one or two years, then turn under weeds, grass, and all vegetation while green. It 

 greatly improves it, and costs but little for a farmer cultivating 1,200 acres. To attempt 

 to fertilize much of it would take all his crop. Doing it fifty acres at a time, he would 

 die of old age before he could get round. 



It is beginning to be realized that it does not pay to cultivate the up- 

 lands of any portion of the South, unless in marl and limestone sections, 



