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% SW%rn Agriculturist
JUNE...............1872.
Only Twenty-Five Cents.
Think of it—by remitting this
small sum to the publishers, you will
receive the Agriculturist for one
year—every number containing infor¬
mation for the farmer worth ten times
the subscription price. It is the
cheapest paper published, and should
be taken by every farmer in the South.
--.*.«*•--
Notice to Subscribers.
Any one sending subscriptions or
communications tor the Southern Ag
rioulttjrist from Florida, Middle or
South Western Georgia, Alabama, Ten¬
nessee, or the States west, will address
us at Savannah, Ga. From North and
South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia
north of the C. R. R., M. & W. R. R.,
and Atlanta & West Point Rail Road*
will address us at Augusta, Ga. Remit
by registered or P. O. order, for Clubs,
for single subscribers, by mail at our
risk. See our premium list. Those
who have not renewed their subscrip¬
tion will please do so, and we hope each
one will send one new subscriber, or
more.
Correspondence Wanted.
Wc desire correspondence from all
parts of the South, upon Agriculture,
Stock raising, Manufacturing, Emigra¬
tion, &c. Reports of the condition
of the crops lrom time to time will
be particularly interesting; short
articles on these subjects will always
be appreciated, by us and our sub¬
scribers.
To Subscribers.
As the Post Office regulations for¬
bid our putting the “Red Cross” on
oar paper to admonish you of the ex¬
piration of your subscription, wc take
occasion to state that all in arrears on
the first of June will be suspended.
Call on your Post Master who has
a revised list of our subscribers, and
will receive and forward the amount
of your arrears and subscription up to
January, 1873.
We hope you will pay up at once,
and get a few new subscribers. We
are giving you a paper for less than
the cost of paper and printing. Our
object is to give every planter some¬
thing to read for the least possible
cost; putting in our own labor as a
contribution for the public good,
Eclectic Magazine .—The June
number of the Eclectic contains as the
continuation of the series of men em¬
inent in American public life, a fine
portrait in steel of Senator Schurz.—
This is perhaps the best portrait of
Mr. Schurz that has been published,
and taken in connection with the
other portraits that have already ap¬
peared, or which are yet to come, will
make the current volumes of the
Magazine especially valuable.
The leading articles of the June
number are: Sir Henry Holland’s
Recollections ; The Portuguese in
Africa; Wanderings in Japan; Tem¬
perature and Movements of the Deep
Sea; A Memoir of Mazzini; About
Charles Lamb; Super human Dwell¬
ing places; Monks of La Trappc ;
Our Dinners; The Asrai, by Robert
Buchanan; Chemistry in the Kitchen;
and several others of equal attractive¬
ness. The Editorial Departments are
full as usual, and The Strange Ad¬
ventures of a Phaeton is continued.
Published by E. R. Pelton, 108
Fulton street, New York. Terms $5
a year; two copies, $9; single number
45 cents.
Wolfskin, Oglethorpe Co., Ga.,)
April 4th, 1872. j
Dear Sir —Yours of the 26th ult.,
in regard to certain methods of pre¬
venting the washing of rolling up¬
lands, is before me. I will give you
with pleasure a statement of the plan
pursued by me to which you refer.
In nearly all the fields that I have
prepared in this way I begin at the
highest point in the field, and at
about twenty or twenty-five steps
from the summit, run off a furrow as
near level as it was possible to make
it with the two ends runuing out to
the fence, woods or whatever else
bounded the land in cultivation. Up¬
on this furrow it is best to throw up
a bed in the same manner as an or
dinary cotton bed; only making it
somewhat higher. An ordinary j
plantation, level in the shape of tbe i
letter A, if properly used, will gic e
you a level furrow. After you have
bedded on it go down the slope if
it is a gradual one fifteen or twenty
yards, , and . ruu off „ another , furrow . an.i ,
J 1 u
throw up another led precisely iu
the same manner as Ihe first, and si>
on to the bottom of the field. If the |
descent should become more abrup
at any point you must , bring , . jour
beds nearer together, and it the con
trary should be the case, and you
should find your land flattening out
into a level ahead of you, then the
beds may be placed at a much griatei
distance from each other. You will j
find That in running your lines and
staking your furrows that they will
very seldom be parallel. Some¬
times they will diverge very widely,
and sometimes they will meet, but in
our ordinary undulating uplands,
with the land sloping in three or
four different directions, it is quite
impossible to avoid this even if it
was desirable to do so. The only
difficulty I have ever had with these
terraces was not getting them exactly
level. If they arc perfectly hori¬
zontal, and once get a crop of strong
grass on them, I don’t think there is
enough “ rain in the sweet Heavens”
to wash them away. Little iucipient
gullies will begin in between them,
but they are brought to an end the
first one of these beds they reach, and
indeed before they reach, it and the
soil they were carrying off will be
found deposited in a bed, gradually
increasing in width, season after sea¬
son, immediately above the terrace.
The grass bed itself will raise itself
higher and higher every year, bring¬
ing the field nearer to the condition
of a terraced garden.
My experience with these things
only extends back about three years,
but I am more and more convinced
that they will save any ordinary
clay soil from washing. It is very
little trouble to make them. Per¬
haps the fastest plan is to go into the
field you intend to begin on with
your level, and a hand with au
armful of small white stakes, run off
your horizontal lines, and stake
them as you go, then bring your
plows behind, instructing the one
who is to run the opening furrow to
lay it off so as to plow up the stakes.
It is best to put these stakes in
pretty close together in curves, and
such places so that you arc certain
to have your furrow follow your level.
Then when your bed is thrown up
your work is done.
You will find (at least it is so
with h ‘ nJ) lhat durm S ,hc first
»P rin S before you get a good strong
coat of grass on your beds, they will
break at places when you have run
a little below the level or where
some careless hand has allowed his
plow point to drag across it. If this
should , ., . be the , the . . best and ,
case,
cheapest remedy I know, is to drive
a row of stakes into■ the bottom of
the break touching each other until
i ou stretch across leaving their
tops about the average height ot the
of , Le bcd 0II cactl fl ,l 0 ( think
tfijg w j]j generally be found sufficient,
If you come to a gully, put a rail
across it; set some pine brush in it,
" ith tbc.r butts resting against the
jj- field has hill side ditches in it
they nrust be filled from end to end
with biush before you can do any¬
thing that will stand, and even then
they will give you trouble if they
have much fall.
Whatever comes up on these hori¬
zontal beds should le allowed to
grow. No hoe should ever touch it.
If bushes corne up, keep them cut
off’ about six inches from the ground,
and cut off all the limbs that put out
laterally at the edge of the bcd. I
find common crab grass holds them
well enough, but Bermuda makes
them perfectly invulnerable, and as
I was born and am now living upon
a place covered with the lath r, l am
not troubled with the honor of it.
Many people have—Mr. John T.
Hurt, of this county, has some kind
ot perennial grass sowed on the ter¬
races of this kind which he intends
to mow, and, I have no doubt, it is a
valuable suggestion. These grass
ridges will be found an excellent
guide in laying off cotton and corn
rows, and in cultivating the land be¬
tween them you can plow up to
them as close as you please both
above and below them, so you take
care not to go across them, and
make a gap. If they arc laid oft
properly when it rains the water will
pond above them at first, and then
pour ever all along at the lowest
parts, and sometimes from end to
end, but it will not carry any of your
land with it. The main idea in the
plan is not to try to control the water,
but to .stop the soil. I have in some
cases, where the land was so poor
that I did not think it would raise a
stroDg euough coat of grass, taken
the precaution to put some good
phosphate, that is rapid in its action
in the bottom of the first furrow.
In conclusion, I beg leave to say
that although as far as I know 1 am
the originator of this suggestion to
prevent washes, I am not its un¬
qualified guarantor. 1 do not pre¬
tend to say that it will be successful
umfcr all circumstances, and in all
lands; I cannot say how it will answer
in “White Sand,” or, indeed, in any¬
thing but Middle Georgia red clav.
Bull shall be gratified if you suc¬
ceed iu making it of service to you
or your neighbors; or, as you suggest,
you may, it you please, publish this
letter in the Southern Agricultu¬
rist, if you think it will be the means
of doing any respectfully, good.
Very Potf. yours, Barrow.
Anybody can tarnish the reputa¬
tion of au individual, however pure
and chaste, by uttering a suspicion
which his enemies will believe, and
his friends never hear of. A puff <d
idle wind can take up a million of the
seeds of the thistle, and do work of
mischief which the husbandman must
labor lung and hard to undo; th'
floating particles being too high to
be .-«een,aud too light to be stopped.
Thunder and Eggs — Where hens
are set in boxes above the ground
the chicks are often killed by severe
thunderstorms. When the nests arc
made directly upon the ground, thun¬
der does nut* affect the eggs—so says
and old fancier.