SOLON ROBINSON, 1850 375 



els to the acre, for one of seed, upon poor land, and give a 

 good stand of clover, that when turned in will give as 

 good a crop as the first. 



The land upon which the above-named crops were made 

 cost $4 an acre. Five miles from navigation, such land 

 can be bought for less money. 



Wm. D. Nelson,^ of Westmoreland county, Virginia, a 

 near neighbor of Mr. Newton, bought the land upon which 

 he now lives, two years ago, at $1,600 for 400 acres. 

 Three fourths of it was grown up in pines, and the bal- 

 ance, not paying interest of money in rent. The place 

 was notoriously poor. It has a very different aspect now. 

 Fine fields of wheat, knee high this backward spring, on 

 the 1st of May, and most luxuriant clover, plainly tell 

 what has been the renovating agent under a judicious 

 management, to effect this great change. He used 200 

 pounds of Peruvian guano, and made 12 bushels wheat 

 to one sowed, to the acre ; and 200 lbs. of Patagonian, and 

 made 10 bushels to one. Upon eleven acres used 2,200 

 lbs., and 11 bushels seed, and made 150 bushels of wheat. 

 Upon 36 acres and 36 bushels seed, on the same kind of 

 land that had been manured well in previous corn crop, 

 but not guanoed, made 152 bushels. The contrast now, 

 between wheat that was guanoed and that without, is 

 equal to the difference between the green grass upon the 

 wayside, and the bare beaten track. He plows in all his 

 guano. Has bought ten tons Peruvian for 1850. 



Dr. F. Fairfax,- of King-George county, Virginia, com- 

 menced the use of guano, in 1847, next year after Mr. 

 Newton, on the northern neck, upon a piece of land so 

 deadly poor that it would not produce any kind of grain 

 enough to pay for planting; soil, clayey loam, hill land. 

 His first experiment was with 400 lbs. to the acre, of 



^ William D. Nelson exhibited fine corn-fed hogs at the Maryland 

 State Agricultural Society fair. The Plough, the Loom, and the 

 Anvil, 6:343 (December, 1853). 



'^ Probably Ferdinando Fairfax, born at Shannon Hill, January 

 9, 1803. Settled in King George County. Du Bellet, Louise Pecquet, 

 Sowe Prominent Virginia Families, 2:179 (Lynchburg, Va., 1907). 



