STATUS OF VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE IN 1870. 27 9 
used to a very great extent. It is seen in the wheat, rye, and oat fields 
of every fasmer, in the seeding, thrashing, and cleaning of small grain 
and the cultivation of crops. Fairfax: Surface of the country well 
adapted to labor-saving implements, and they are generally m use for 
cutting grain and grass. Caroline: Want of means, and want of conti- 
dence in their durability, have prevented farmers from using improved 
implements, except in a very limited way. Louisa: No experiments 
have been made to test the merits of new machinery. Labor is so 
cheap that farmers have felt no inducement to try new methods. Lou- 
doun: The reaper, mower, drill, and rake are in general use, the mower | 
cutting eight to ten acres per day, and the rake, with a brisk horse, 
going over twenty acres. Eauquier: Nearly every kind of labor-saving 
implement has been tried, and all with decided profit, except reapers, 
much the larger portion of the county being too hilly for their use. The 
mower (McCormick’s preferred) is used on all the meadows. Madi- 
son: Wheat-drills, reapers, mowers, and thrashing-machines are exten- 
sively used, and have become indispensable on large farms. Greene: 
The mower used to some extent, but, not being a wheat-growing section, 
the drill and reaper have not been introdaced. Culpeper: To a largely 
increasing extent, labor-saving machinery has taken the place of man- 
ual labor, and the substitution has been found profitable. Its general 
use has only been prevented by the poverty of the people. Albemarle: 
Labor-saving machines not much used, for the reason that the prices are 
beyond the means of most farmers. Nelson: Improved implements used 
to a very limited extent. Where the surface of the land is adapted to 
them, corn-planters, buggy-plows, reapers, mowers, and gleaners have 
been tried to advantage, and save 30 to 60 per cent. of manual labor. 
Tide-water, (Southside.)—Cotton and peanuts being the principal mar- 
ket crops, with corn, the only implements in use are such as are speci- 
ally adapted to their culture. So far as relates to what is generally 
understood by the term “improved implements,” the answers from Surry, 
Southampton, and Isle of Wight agree in saying, “‘ None worth mention- 
ing.” In Princess Anne, the corn-weeder or cotton-plow, for cleaning 
young corn, is in general use, doing the work of three hands with hoes, 
and nearly as well. In Norfolk various implements are used, adapted 
to horticultural purposes. tl 
Piedmont district, (Southside.)—A large and very important division of 
the State, but, except in one or two counties, no enterprise has been 
manifested in the introduction of improved implements. In Chester- 
field, the want of capital has prevented their more extended use. The 
small number that have been tried have given satisfaction. In Pow- 
hatan, the drill, reaper, and mower are in use on the large James River 
farms. As a general thing, labor is cheap and abundant, such as it is. 
In Cumberland and Lunenburg, farmers still follow the old modes of 
-culture. In Amelia, corn-planters and drills are used to some extent, 
- but this county is rousing up from its lethargy, and a working agricul- 
tural society, of more than a hundred farmers, has been organized during 
the year, from whose labors we may expeet useful results. In Nottoway, 
where a number of northern men have bought farms, drills, mowers, 
reapers, and thrashing-machines have been successfully introduced by 
them. In- Appomattox, the land is thought to be too rolling to admit 
of their profitable use. In Buckingham, not a single improved imple- 
ment has been introduced, with the exception of one reaper, which was 
put in operation last harvest and gave satisfaction to those who wit- 
nessed its performance; but, as a large crop of wheat is reported to 
have been seeded in the county in the fall of 1870, the use of reapers 
