STATUS OF VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE IN 1870. 275 
grass, which forms a sod that improves each year, so that when thirty 
years old the pastures will turn off beef better fattened than when 
younger. Many farmers devote a large portion of their estates to per- 
petual sod,.dividing the remaining portion into six, seven, or eight 
fields, with alternations of clover andtimothy. Others take a field after 
- it has been in sod six or more years, and has become so enriched as to 
bear a succession of crops for as many more years. The general result 
is, thatin few parts of the State have the lands been so much improved, 
or more numerous instances of well-paid agriculture been presented. 
Madison: A rotation of crops has prevailed for many years, though not 
always, or generally, with the intervention of green crops. The plan 
preferred is the six-field system; corn, fallowed with oats, then wheat, 
with clover and timothy the ensuing three years. Greene: No general 
attention is paid to a judicious alternation of crops, but the seeding of 
clover and timothy is on the increase. The most approved course is 
corn, then wheat or oats with grass-seeds; the second crop of grass to 
be fallowed and seeded to wheat, and afterward to remain two years in 
grass. Under this system fields which some years ago would not yield 
more ‘than ten bushels of corn to the acre now produce thirty to fifty 
bushels. Oulpeper: Partly a grazing and partly a grain county. The 
rotation followed by the best farmers is corn, wheat, and clover, (or 
clover and timothy mixed,) if grazing more than improvement of the 
land is the object. As a general thing, however, but little attention is 
paid to a regular alternation of crops. Albemarle: The rotation usu- 
ally practiced is to fallow a green crop, and seed the land to wheat 
which, without fertilizer, yields from fifteen to twenty bushels per acre; 
after wheat, corh, making twenty-five to thirty bushels per acre, and 
then wheat or oats. If wheat, an application of one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred pounds of fertilizer is given, and the yield is fifteen to 
twenty bushels per acre; if oats, no fertilizer is applied, and the yield 
is twenty to twenty-five bushels per acre. Then fallow with grass for 
two or three years. Upon the whole, however, this great central county 
of the State is making but slow progress in improvement. Nelson: 
Increased attention is given to alternation of crops. The course usually 
adopted is to cultivate first with corn, then oats, then wheat, and to 
fallow with two years in clover, requiring five years to complete the 
rotation. 
Tide-water district, (Southside.)\—This is the smallest geographical di- 
vision of the State, embracing only six or seven counties, the produc- 
tions of which, as well as the neglect of ail scientific methods of culture, 
are peculiar to itself. The staple crops are cotton, peanuts, corn, oats, 
sweet potatoes, and cornfield peas. In one or two counties very exten- 
sive apple and peach orchards are planted, and the “brandy crop” is 
spoken of as familiarly as any other crop. In Norfolk, and one or two 
other counties convenient to water transportation, trucking and the 
raising of fruits for the northern markets are largely followed. We 
have reports from five or six counties, and the subject of rotation and 
alternation may be dispatched with brief notice. Surry: No increased 
attention, and scarcely any at all is given to rotation. The method of 
cropping is about as follows: First year, corn, with cornfield peas sown 
broadcast or planted in hills between the corn rows at last plowing; 
second year, the land lies fallow, unless planted in peanuts (now gene- 
rally the case) or sown with oats. The truck patches are generally on 
land planted with corn the preceding year; third year with corn again, 
and so on. Southampton: No system of alternation pursued. The 
attention of farmers is directed to the production of cotton, which is 
