STATUS OF VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE IN 1870. 283 
the acre. Barn-yard manure is husbanded with somecare. It is deemed 
most economical to apply this to the fields nearest to the barn, and com- 
mercial fertilizers to thase most remete. When the hauling does not 
add too much to the expense, barn-yard manure is the best for all crops, 
‘except wheat.- Gas-lime is largely used in the portions of the county 
nearest to Washington and Alexandria, and is thought to be quicker in 
its effects than stone-lime or oyster-shells. Plaster is not sown exten- 
Sively. Caroline: Fertilizers are applied to perhaps one in every five 
acres; commercial to a greater extent than home-made, but the latter 
are always the best, and in the end cheaper. Lands, however fertile 
naturally, will increase in product almost double by a liberal applica- 
tion of manures. Louisa: The reports from this county are somewhat 
diverse. One correspondent states that “ within his observation bought 
fertilizers are less and less used.” Another says that they are much 
employed, and that their use is limited only by the want of means to 
purchase. When such means exist, they are applied to three-fourths of 
the cultivated land. Peruvian guano is preferred, or those superphos- 
phates of which it forms one of the component parts; or guano and 
bone-flour, in the proportion of two to one, at the rate of two hundred 
and fifty pounds per acre for wheat. Home-made manures are pre- 
ferred, as far as available. Loudoun: Commercial fertilizers are almost 
exclusively applied to the wheat crop, embracing about one-third of the 
aereage, at the rate of one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and 
fifty pounds per acre. This about doubles the product. Not more than 
one-fourth of the whole manure used is home-made. Fauquier: “ Our 
grazing system supersedes the use of fertilizers, except plaster.’ Tur- 
nei’s Excelsior has retained the good opinion of farmers longer than 
any other fertilizer, being valuable for insuring a good stand of tim- 
othy. Plaster is universally used on grass, with good results. Tur- 
ner’s Excelsior, made in Baltimore, is used to a greater extent than all 
other fertilizers combined. Attherate of one hundred and fifty pounds 
per acre, it hastens the ripening of wheat about five days, and benefits 
the succeeding crop of clover 30 per cent.” Madison: About one-twen- 
tieth of the tilled acreage is fertilized. Commercial manures are used 
largely in excess of home-made, and are thought by many to be the 
most'economical. A mixture of equal parts of Peruvian guano and 
raw bone-dust, three hundred pounds to the acre, acts very finely on the 
cereals and grasses. Greene: The use of fertilizers is quite limited ; 
home-made in mach larger proportion than commercial, the former being 
regarded as most economical and profitable. Tobacco planters, of 
whom there are a few, hold on to the commercial manures. Plaster is 
used to a limited extent on nearly all crops. The soil is very susceptible 
of improvement, and a light application of manure produces an inerease 
of about ten bushels of corn or other grain to the acre. Culpeper: 
Fertilizers are used to a limited extent on wheat. About one-tenth of 
the acreage is improved, half with home-made manures, and half with 
commercial, with similar results. Since the disappearance of the joit- 
worm, the production is inereased eight to ten bushels to the aere by 
’. the application, making the average yield nearly twenty bushels, from 
one hundred. and fifty to two hundred pounds of phosphate. Some far- 
mers manufacture their own fertilizers, by using bone-flour, two tons; 
leached ashes, one ton; plaster, one-half ton; hen-house scrapings, one-half 
ton, with a few bushels of salt. An application of two hundred pounds 
is good for twenty busheis of wheat, and the same quantity of bought 
manures, at nearly double the cost, will do no better. Albemarle: About 
one-fifth of the cultivated surface is improved. For wheat one hundred 
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