282 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
by farmers as unmitigated hambugs. Peruvian guano is the best, and 
the kind generally used on wheat. Pea or clover fallow, on marled or 
limed land, yields a heavier crop than any commercial manure, besides 
leaving the land in better condition. Plaster is a favorite application on 
green crops. Farmers are turning their. attention much more than for- 
merly to making manure in the farm-yard. Good stable-manure will 
double the yield of ordinary land” Essex: Commercial manures fallen 
almost into disuse. Home-made, including lime from oyster-shells and 
ashes from the fire-places, are regarded as far preferable, being more last- 
ing, economical, and profitable. The use of lime and manure insures a 
rapid improvement of the soil, producing a luxuriant crop of clover and 
the grasses. King and Queen: Commercial fertilizers but little used, 
farmers having lost confidence in them. Increased attention paid to mak- 
ing and applying domestic manures. King George: “ Fertilizers have 
been found of so little benefit that their useis yearly diminishing. Guano 
formerly produced astonishing effects, but not now. The manures of- 
the farm-pen and stables are, more regarded.” Richmond: Manures 
are applied to crops of all kinds, but not one-tenth of the tilled acreage 
is manured? From one hundred to three hundred pounds of super- 
' phosphate applied to the acre, and twenty-five one-horse loads of home- 
made manure. The home-made always pays; commercial rarely. Lime 
and home-made manure are the most economical, and the production is 
doubled by the application. On limed lands the crops are inereased 
100 per cent. after three years. Northumberland: Not more than three 
acres in one hundred are fertilized with commercial manures, and the 
benefit is exhausted in one or two years. Latterly fish-guano has been 
introduced, which is manufactured in the county, and sold at $20 per 
ton. An application of three hundred to five hundred pounds per acre 
has produced fifteen bushels of wheat on land which would not have 
produced four bushels without it, and it promotes a vigorous growth of 
clover. Its effects are far more permanent than those of Peruvian 
guano. Clover and lime will make the poorest lands of the county as 
productive as may be desired. Lancaster: Commercial manures have 
been used on wheat and corn atthe rate of two hundred pounds to 
the acre. Owing to the dry seasons for the last two years, the imme- 
diate effect was not appreciable, but the benefit to the young clove? and 
grasses was marked. Home-made manures are more economical, and 
the county has vast resources for their production, in marl and oyster- 
shells, sea-ores, fresh and salt peat, woods’ mold, &e. A single appli- 
cation of sea-ores has been known to increase the erop of corn fifteen 
bushels to the acre. . 
Piedmont district, (Northside.)—Stafford: Manufaetured fertilizers 
have proved so uncertain that they were little used the past season. 
Home-made manures were more relied on. Prince William: Fertilizers 
are used on only a small portion of thetilled land, perhaps, one-fifth ; half 
‘commercial, half home-made. Of the former, from two hundred to three 
hundred pounds per acre are applied. The home-made is far better in 
its effects, lasting several years, the commercial only benefiting the first 
and second crops. Alexandria: Fertilizers are applied to a very great 
extent, at least one-half of the tilled acreage being improved. Com- 
mercial and home-made in about equal proportions, the former at the 
rate of two hundred to four hundred pounds per acre. The increase of 
products is considerably in favor of home-made manure, and land is 
always left in better condition. Fairfax: Probably two-thirds of the land 
seeded to wheat and one-fourth of the corn have commercial fertilizers 
applied to them, at an average rate of one hundred and fifty pounds to 
