Newspaper Page Text
54
AGRICULTURAL.
DANIEL LEG, M. Editor.
SATURDAY JULY 9, 1559.
OH WHAT BASIS ABE SOUND PRINCIPLES IH
AGRICULTURE TO BE ESTABLISHED 1
In continuation of the subject of questions
and answers in agriculture, barely commenced in
our last issue, we proceed to inquire : on what
basis are sound principles in agriculture to be es
tablished ? Answer : Sound principles, wheth
er in tillage or husbandry, can have no other ba
sis than that of making restitution to the soil of
all the elements of fertility removed in crops.
It is not necessary that man should always
mak# this restitution, because, under favorable
circumstances, nature performs this necessary
operation for him. This fact is strikingly shown
on the fertile bottoms which are occasionally
overflown by a river, or smaller stream, and
made rich by aqueous deposites. These per
form the office of manure, and thereby Save the
cultivator the necessity of expending either la
bor or money in renovating an impoverished
soil. There are several other ways in which
nature kindly recuperates the weakened pow
ers of longarated fields without the aid of hu
man thought or industry. The principal agen
cies concerned in this renovating process are
the dynamical and chemical forces that exist in
moving water, and in moving atmospheric gases.
The activity and efficiency of these forces are
largely increased by solar heat and light, by
freezing cold, and by the inherent powers of
both vegetable and animal vitality. Each of
these elements and others not yet named, are
the means used by Providence to rejuvenate
land which has by any change of condition lost
its former fruitfulness. Where uplands are sub
ject to wash and denudation, nature is very
slow in repairing the injury done by improper
cultivation, and the work of making restitution
becomes a part of agricultural labor. But in
such cases, prevention of damage is better for
the land and its owner than the employment of
expensive remedies after the injury has been
done. Hence, the art and wisdom of construct
ing hill-side ditches to guard against the bad ef
fects of our almost tropical rains that sometimes
deluge the earth to a limited extent. Every fur
row should be made with reference to the pos
sible damage from washing showers, and thereby
avoid the loss of mould, and of tho fine and
more soluble mineral particles at and near the
surface of tho ground.
After all has been done that experience dic
tates as proper in our-climate to prevent the loss
of fertility, by the dynamical forces of tillage
and moving water, we have to consider tho
ways and moans at our command to plow into
the soil the identical substances required for the
growth of profitable crops, so far as they may be
lacking, or present, but in an unavailable con
dition. When one lias reached this point in the
improvement of impoverished land, or of that
which is naturally thin, poor, or barren, he feels
the want of more reliable information than ho
possesses.
lie wants to know’ how far nature is able to
draw the several constituents of fruitfulness from
the atmosphere, and from the deep subsoil to
create as it were a new' fertility in ground which
is really too poor for successful cropping. In
all such cases one must rely exclusively on liis
own experience and observation, or avail him
self of the recorded experience of others, in form
ing liis judgment liow to operate. Wo have
always thought, and long taught that tho latter
course is wiser than the former ; for it improves
a man’s capacity to see and understand all agri
cultural phenomena better, if he studies the
practice, the truths, and the errors, developed in
the lifelong experience of hundreds and thou
sands of other farmers and planters. In this
way he really makes their dear bought wisdom
his own by a little reading and thinking.
There are few recipes in agriculture for extract
ing manure from rain water, or from the deep
earth, which are valuable to any but men well
grounded in the true principles of agricultural
science. This arises in part from the infinite
diversity of soils and subsoils ; so that a system
would be eminently successful in one
place might fail in another. Liming is just the
tiring required in many localities ; while liming
alone proves valueless in some geological dis
tricts. Gypsum and phosphate of lime often
fail of paying their cost when used as fertilizers.
All special manures will only liit in special
cases. Stable manure makes not a special, but
a comprehensive restitution of both the organic
and inorganic elements of fertility ; and there
fore where the soil is not poisoned t\y some sol
uble mineral, nor by stagnant water, stable
dung, rotting in the ground, never fails to enrich
poor land. But w’here shall the cultivator of a
poor farm go to obtain those plants which will
yield rich stable manure, or equally enrich land
if plowed in green, or, if ftiey rot on the sur
face of the earth ? The owner of such barren
soil really lacks the very seed of the dung heap.
yet even he is not wholly without remedies to
cure the natural poverty of his fields. Moss
grows on a naked rock, and there are at least a
hundred plants that will assist a wise man in
fertilizing poor land. The cultivation of some
of these plants as renovating crops lias rarely
failed of being very profitable in the end.—
Tree planting has done much for the sterile
granitic soils of Scotland, Belgium, and other Eu
ropean countries; and some of cur readers may
be surprised one of these days, when we show
them the official returns to prove that timber i 3
one of the staple crops grown for exportation in
Belgium, which is the most densely peopled na
tion in Europe.
There is no land in Georgia so poor that for
est trees will not grow upon it; and we may
grow valuable timber, and all fruit-bearing trees
*gaK® sowmiui vxs&ai ill huubxm.
adapted to our climate, with equal success.
There are at least a score of trees that will
enrich our old fields more than twice as fast as
the pines that now very generally occupy the
ground. The writer’s limited experience in tree
planting and forest culture has been quite en
couraging ; and he desires to see this branch of
land-improvement, and source of wealth, extend
ed. It is at once a natural and very eco
nomical way to augment vegetable mould and
fruitfulness in any soil not already exceedingly
rich. Trees judiciously selected and planted,
will grow as fast as young children, and thus
give existence to valuable timber, and more
valuable fruits, as a sure income from wliat is
now a cheap and unproductive landed estate.
—
CUTTING TIMBER AT THE RIGHT SEASON.
A correspondent of the Walhalla Banner in
vites public attention to the subject of cutting
fence posts and trees whose timber, or plank may
be exposed to tho weather, at that season of the
year when the wood will be least liable to decay.
He says:
During the month of August, 1851, I had
post-oak posts cut for a garden. They were
hewn in March, and charred to about five inches
above the ground. I finished the garden on the
19th of March, 1852. There were wanting three
posts to complete the line, and I sent a boy into
the woods to cut them ; one was charred, and
one of the other two was put into the ground
reversed. On tlie 18th of March, 1859, a heavy
gale passed over my farm, and the line of gar
den-paling last finished was blown down. Upon
examination, I found the three posts last insert
ed, completely rotted—the very heart was in a
state of decay. I could see no difference in fa
vor of the charring or inverting, worthy of note.
This induced me to examine all the other garden
j posts. I found the sap generally decayed, but
the heart sound. The charring seemed to have
delayed, but not prevented, the decay of the sap
wood. x
I have post-oak gate posts now standing,
which were put in the ground seventeen years
ago ; the heart is sound vet, while other posts,
cut at different times, have completely rotted in
half the time, all things being equal in the way
of exposure or situation. Cannot your practical
and observing correspondent, ‘’Laurens,” throw
some light on the subject ?
A Backwoodsman.
In countries where the people have been com
pelled to plant acorns, walnuts, and the seeds
of other forest trees, to grow timber for home
consumption, it has been a matter of much in
terest to determine at what time of the year it
is best to fell trees with a view to secure the
greatest durability to the wood. Modern ana
lytical chemistry, as applied to the study of veg
etable physiology, lias thrown light on this sub
ject. Certain substances, like pitch, wax, tal
low, and oil, possess a remarkable power, where
diffused through the cells of wood, of resisting
that natural chemical action called decay. These
fatty particles are wanting in most forest trees;
yet, the starch, sugar, gum, young, and old
woody fibre vary materially not only in young
and old trees, but in different months of the year.
The same remarks apply to all the nitrogenous
tissues of these noble plants.
WHY STOCK-GROWING WILL BE PROFIT
ABLE.
An examination of the statistics of the live
stock in the United States, as shown by the
census of 1840 and that of 1850, lurnishes some
facts worth considering for the remarkable de
crease exhibited in the six New England States,
in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dele
ware, Maryland, and Virginia. In the twelve
States named, the falling off in ten years was
very nearly eight and a half million head. We
give the official figures :
1840. ISSO. Decrease.
Horses and Mules, 1,612,533 1,529,199 58,694.
Neat Cattle, 6,178,509 6.083,841 89,728.
Swine, 6,897,896 4,909,884 1,988,018.
Slieep, 11,872,622 5,450,678 6,221,950.
Total decrease, 8,388,885.
With a pretty large increase of population,
the fact of such a decreaso in the number of
domestic animals appears extraordinary. It is
due entirely to the general, and almost universal
impoverishment of the soil in tlieso old States.
The ground that once supported sheep, hogs,
neat cattle, and horses now yields so much loss
that nearly all its products are required for hu
man sustenance, leaving but little for live stock.
The evidence of this fact would be far more con
clusive, did not the prolific West furnish New
England and large districts in New York and
other States with much of their breadstuff's and
provisions; thus saving much land for the support
of horses, and other domestic animqls. Not
withstanding every gain of this kind, a larger
population is compelled to do with some eighty
four thousand horses less in 1850, than a small
er population had in 1840. The larger popula
tion also had fewer sheep than the smaller to
supply them with wool and mutton by some six
and a quarter million head—the reduction being
over fifty per cent.
Is not this condition of things in twelve States
most encouraging to stock husbandry in this
quarter of the Union, where grazing lands
abound to an almost unlimited extent? At no
time within the memory of man have wool
growing, and the rearing of horses, mules, and
neat cattle been so remunerative in this country
as they now are; nor is the supply likely to
equal the demand for generations to come. All
our national habits and customs operate against
the systematic improvement of land. This will
render the profits of such as act wisely in the mat
ter of stock husbandry, both large and certain.
No one should wait till his fields cease to pro
duce good crops of cotton, corn, and wheat bo
fore he seeds them down to the best European
grasses; for if he does, it may be too late to re
alize any profit. No one can stop too soon the
bad practice of wearing out the land he culti
vates. By keeping breeding mares and raising
fine colts, or by keeping sheep, a farmer may
easily improve a farm without plowing a
tenth part of it. After the soil is nearly
exhausted, tho family must still get their bread
from it, an- as at the North, live stock will bo
driven off the premises. When one raises no
more corn than the children need, it is easy to
see that but few hogs will be fatted on this grain.
Something like this state of things reduced the
number of swine nearly two million head from
1840 to 1850, where there ought to have been an
increase of a like number. Similar causes re
duced nearly twelve million head of sheep to a
fraction over five million.
The next census will show some thirty million
inhabitants in the confederacy, and very little if
any increase of horses. Hence, horse flesh must
rise rapidly in its market price; while wool
will certainly be at least twice as profitable as
cotton culture in the hands of men who know
how to take care of sheep. The dairy business
pays more than three times the profit now in that
part of New York where the writer was reared,
that it did thirty years ago. It is easy to see
that, if one can pay expenses and produce but
ter on a large scale at ten cents a pound, a for
tune may be made at this branch of rural in
dustry, when butter is sold at twenty cents a
pound, as it will give a clear profit of one hun
dred per cent. A cow that twenty years ago
would have sold for fifteen dollars, will now
bring forty-five dollars; and steers have risen
equally in price.
It is choice cows, sheep, horses, and mules,
that yield the greatest returns to skilful hus
bandmen. The production of scrubs, or mean
stock of any kind, is rather a mean business in
a pecuniary point of view. Raise superior ani
mals on rich perennial grasses, if you seek a
good income from your farm in stock husbandry.
Such animals may obtain a part of their living
from unimproved old fields, particularly sheep;
but they want good clover and pea hay in the
winter, or hay made from the English grasses.
The most prominent error in stock growing is
the attempt to rear fine hogs, cattle, and sheep,
on scanty and defective food. Some want a good
deal of meat, milk, or wool, from little or noth
ing. They ask nature to make them rich, while
they lie in the shade in summer, and set by the
fire in winter, and leave their poor animals to
nearly or quite perish from neglect. Give stock
the same diligence and care bestowed on a crop
of cotton,'and the profit will be far g reater, be
cause the one branch of business is now pushed
rather too far, while the other is sadly neglected.
Hence, there is more money in growing horses,
mules, and wool than in growing our great com
mercial staple. Let us diversify our agriculture,
and learn to make a little labor go a great way
by pursuing a system of wise husbandry.
■ '
[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
Effingham, July Ist, 1859.
Dr. Lee : Dear Sir : You will send me an
ounce or two of the grass seed so kindly offered
to your subscribers. lam a novice in farming,
(this being my third crop.) yet I love farming
more than every other profession, and believing
that the successful cultivation of grasses, and fo
rage plants, and the consequent rearing of stock,
underlies all agricultural improvements, my at
tention has been earnestly directed toward them.
Until this spring all my efforts have proved fail
ures. On the 22d of February last, I planted a
spot in my garden with Lucerne and Stanford
grass. The Lueerno is now in bloom, and is
two and a half feet high. Land would possibly
produce eighteen to twenty bushels of com to
the acre. The Stanford grass is nearly four feet
high, and is now ripening its seed. Lind same
as before.
It is likely that they would have been earlier
and better, if planted at the proper season—the
fall of the year. The Hungarian grass may be
worthy of cultivation, but lias disappointed me.
In the latter part of March one bed of it was
planted, and another in April. Both were
planted in drills, and well worked, upon about
such land as the Stanford grass grew on,
and it attained only the average height of two
feet; and as it is an annual, and said to be ex
hausiing, I do not believe it to be adapted to our
section of the country where good land is scarce,
and will grow many other crops to more profit.
You can better judge of the success attending
my efforts, as I have never seen the cultivated
grasses grown before. The farmers around, tell
me that they would be content if they could kill,
instead of raising grass ; and my experience has
been of necessity limited. But I hope this state
of things will not long last, and they will not, if
my efforts, with the assistance of your valuable
pages, will do aught towards effecting a change.
Please answer the following queries in the
way that best suits you. What I wish is ano
ther grass seed to add to my list :
Can the sulphate of lime, refuse from the man
ufacture of “Soda Water,” te profitably used,
and if so, what is its value for agricultural pur
poses ?
Can any grass be grown to profit on rich bot
tom land subject at some periods of the year to
an overflow of two or three inches ?
Do you know a preventive to the grub or wolf
on cattle ? It is said that they are in poorer
condition, and more apt to die at seasons when
they are most numerous. Respectfully,
M. A. J.
— 1 1 >
HUNGARIAN HONEY BLADE GRASS.
Office of tiie Country Gentleman, )
Albany, N. Y., June 24,1859 J
Dr. D. Lee : Dear Sir—Wo are much obliged
to you for sending us the card of “A. P. Beers,”
cut from an Augusta paper, or otherwise we
might not have seen it. The statement of Mr.
Beers, that “ the Country Gentleman is pecu
niarily interested” in the sale of any species of
seed which is affected by “the increasing popu
larity of the Hungarian Honey Blade,” is un
qualifiedly false. We have no interest, pecuni
ary or otherwise, in the sale of any kind of seed
whatever. All we have had to say about the
“ Ilungarin Honey Blade,” has been with a view
to save our readers from paying a high price for
an old thing under a new name.
Respectfully yours,
Luther Tucker & Son.
Scented Oils. —Some of theso are sold by per
fumers at a very high profit; they can all be
prepared at a very small expense. Take a quart
of common olive oil, and heat it in a stone ware
vessel up to 212 deg. then add half an ounce
sal-soda, and stir all for fifteen minutes. Allow
it to cool, and a sediment will fall .to the bottom;
pour off the clear, and sent it with any of the
essential oils, such as rosemary, bergamot; and
lavender. One fourth of an ounce of essential
oil will scent a quart of tho prepared oil, which
is very excellent for the hair, and equal to Row
land’s celebrated Macassar oil, sold, at such ex
travagent prices.— Scientific Aineriaan.
SHEEP SHEARING FESTIVAL.
A public sheep-shearing took place at the resi
dence of Gen. J. S. Goe, near Brownsville, Pa.,
May 26, at which James Higenbotiiem was cho
sen President, and William Duncan Secretary.
Resolves were passed, expressive of the industry
and energy of Gen. Goe in breeding stock, and
of the excellency of his flock. We give a sum
mary of the number sheared, as furnished by
the committee under whose superintendence the
shearing took place:
Two French Merino Ewes, washed, average
of fleeces, eight pounds four ounces.
Eight French Merino Ewes, unwashed, aver
age of fleeces, ten pounds two ounces.
One French Merino Buck, unwashed, weight
fleece, twenty-two pounds two ounces.
One Silesian Merino Buck, unwashed, weight
of fleece, sixteen pounds six ounces.
Three Silesian Merino Ewes, unwashed, aver
age of fleeces, seven pounds.
Four Silesian Merino Ewes, washed, average
of fleeces, three pounds seven ounces.
Four Spanish Merino Bucks, unwashed, aver
age of fleeces, twelve pounds two ounces.
Eight Spanish Merino Ewes, unwashed, aver
age of fleeces, eight pounds seven ounces.
Fifty Spanish Merino Ewes, washed, average
of fleeces, five pounds.
The Spanish Merino Sheep, both males and
females, are the variety best adapted to wool
growing in Georgia and the contiguous States.
They are smaller than the French Merinos, and
therefore better able to subsist on scant pas
tures; and at the same time they yield quite
as much value in wool for the food consumed as
any other breed or race of sheep whatever.
The reader will find in this connection, a life
like likeness of a group of Spanish Merino Rams,
bred by, and the property of George Camp
bell, of Westminster, V ermont. The fifty Span
ish Merino Ewes that yielded Gen. Goe an av
erage of five pounds of washed wool a head,
would give their owner two dollars and a half
each for its fleece, and probably something
more than that sum for their lambs. Indeed,
we should like to take their lambs at five dollars
a head. Good Merino wool is now worth fifty
cents a pound ; and we will take an early leisure
hour to state briefly the reasons for believing
that one may grow a pound of this wool at
about the cost of producing a pound of cotton.
Americus, sth July, 1859.
Dr. Li:e —Dear Sir: Please find enclosed
five post office stamps, to pay postage on (he
grass-seed, you have generously proposed to
send to the subscribers to the Field and Fireside.
I have a very good bit of land reclaimed from
marsh by ditching, but cannot prevent an oc
casional overflow and sometimes for several
days together.
A suggestion through your paper as to what
kind of grass would probably be best, will be
properly appreciated, and greatly oblige yours,
Ac. A. A. Robinson.
The grass known as red-top and lierds-grass
in the Middle States, as foul meadow in New
England, common lent in Old England, and bo
tanically Ajrostis vulgaris , is one of the best you
can cultivate. It is quite common in Clark
county, Ga. The Poa pratense may also be grown
to advantage. If the water remains on the
ground too long, it will kill all of tho better kinds
of grass; when you must seed again. Raise your
seed as you do your corn, and always keep a
little over when you sow, after you are once
fairly started in a good meadow.
Fine vs. Coarse AYool Sheep. —Having been
a reader of tho Farmer for the past ten years, I
have during that time noticed more or less dis
cussion with regard to tho relative qualities of
coarse and fine wool sheep, some recommending
one kind and some another, as yielding the great
est profit to the farmer. I have kept both kinds,
and as far as my experience goes, am greatly in
favor of the fine wool, provided they are of the
right kind. I kept through the winter, one year
ago, thirty-one sheep of the French and Spanish
cross; fifteen ewes, (which reared me fourteen
lambs,) thirteen lambs and three bucks, which
sheared mo six pounds and eleven ounces per
head (on an average,) of clean, washed wool.
That sold for forty cents per pouud, while coarse
wool sold from twenty-five cents to thirty cents.
My pheep were provided with (what I consider
indispensable,) good shelter, racks under cover,
and fed with corn, oats, and wheat bran, in equal
parts, half bushel per day, and watered regular
ly. Now, if any one can show a greater profit
from the same number of coarse wool sheep, I
hope they will give us their experience.
Z. B. S., Fairfield, Ohio.
HOWTO KEEP INSECTS OUT OF DRIED FRUIT.
The Lexington Flay says that pieces of sassa
fras bark put in with dried fruit, will keep all in
sects away from it. The statement appears
highly probable; for the fragrance and essen
tial oil of this bark are very offensive to these
pests to every house-keeper.
Try the fresh bark to drive off chinch bugs,
should any reader be troubled with them.
—
CORN.
• The Bowling-Green Gazette says it is the uni
versal opinion among farmers that, if the weath
er continues favorable, there will be tl)e largest
com crop ever produced in that country.
AGRICULTURAL LETTERS FROM HANCOCX
NO. 6.
BY AS OLD MEMBER Or HIE PLASTERS’ CLUB.
UiU-side ditching—lts decline—Objections to it —
The grading system—Land culture — Terracing.
Mr. Editor: It is a fact not to be disguised,
that hill-side ditching, as the means of improv
ing land, has seen its best days in Hancock
county. Though not entirely abandoned, yet it
is partially superceded by another and a better
system. Discerning men havo long since seen
objections to it, which in the estimation of many
are sufficient to condemn it. The most promi
nent of these, are : First, the difficulty of main
taining the right fall on different kinds of soil,
and in the different curves around hills, so as to
keep an open ditch, without making a gully.—
Second, the fact that unless it is done perfect
ly, heavy rains make breaks, which result in
larger and deeper gullies than under the old
system. Third, it has been found that eveiy
ditch carries off much of the good soil, and it is
believed that the waste, though not so rapid, is
still going on under this system. As collateral
objections, the time it takes to keep them open,
in being crossed with plows, or clogged with
grass or stalks, and the loss of land they cause,
as well as their unsightliness, have all been
urged. These however, are minor considera
tions, when compared with the others.
The first objection is of a very serious charac
ter, and one which no theory can obviate; noth
ing but practice can make a man perfect in this
os in almost every other art; even after a long
practice the most practical minds find it difficult
to succeed in every instance. As general rules,
sandy soils require deeper grades than clay soils;
and short curves, more fall, and higher banks,
than straight ditches, and the nearer the mouth
the deeper should be the grade and the wider
the ditch. Long ditches should always be avoid
ed, if possible, as they can rarely be made to
carry off the accumulating waters of a heavy
rain. Wo introduced an improvement, which
now seems to be generally in vogue, by which
both curves and long ditches are measurably
avoided. It is, to begin the ditches at the centre
of the ridge, and run up the sides of the hill,
instead of down, till you strike the hollow;
where, if there is no ditcli, one should always be
conß*ructed, to receive all the ditches from each
side of the hill, and carry the water off to the
branch or creek.
The grand objection to hill-side ditching, in
our judgment, is that it does not protect the soil
from gradual waste, as it was once thought it
would do. In the western and northern parts
of this county, where hill-side ditching has been
long in vogue, it is discovered that on steep
hills the constant action of the plow, together
with the rains, has carried the soil from imme
diately below each ditcli, further down the hill,
until it will scarcely produce anything at these
points. The most fertile parts of the land is always
just above the ditch—the most barren just be
low it. So that the richest land being the ac
cumulated surface soil, for a number of feet above,
are always just above the ditch, ready to be
thrown in by the plow, or washed in by the
rain, and carried, (somewhat circuitously, it is
true,) to the valley beneath. Wc have several
fields in our eye almost as surely mined in this
way by hill-side ditching, as under the old plan;
not so quickly, we admit. Under any system,
all soils tend downward, under the action of the
plow. Now, let us suppose a hill-side with a
declivity so steep that the surface soil falls two
inches down the hill for every furrow that is
run. Allowing an average of thjee plowings
a year for the different crops, the soil would
recede a half foot annually, or ten feet in twenty
years. Now, on a slope of one hundred feet the
base of the hill would be getting deeper and
richer from the action of the plow, while near
the summit the soil would be much poorer, in
fact entirely removed. The lower belt would
be doubled in depth of soil, the middle retain
its own, there being simply a replacement- of
the soil and no loss—while the upper belt of
three feet would not have a particle of the old
surface soil. But let us suppose that we have
threo hill-side ditches within the bounds of one
hundred feet —which would not be too much for
a steep hill. Each ditch arrests the downward
progress of the soil, and carries off what accumu
lates at the base just above it, which, just
below the soil receiving no help from above,
is denuded for ten feet of its soil, thus making
thirty feet put of the one hundred a waste;
while, under the system of level culture, there
is but two feet impoverished. This is a question
of much interest, and should arrest the atten
tion, of all who advocate hill-side ditching so
indiscriminately.
To obviate these objections, it has been pro
posed to supercede hill-side ditching by grad
ing all the rows at a rate sufficient to carry off
the surface water of a washing rain, without
producing any breaks in the land. Thus each
j-ow would carry its own water, and the neces
sity of ditches bo entirely obviated. This
certainly is an improvement, but has very serious
objections, nevertheless. For let the grade be a
long one, the soil of a loose texture, and the rain
abundant, it will be perceived at once that at
the termination of each row a gully would be
formed, and much of the soil carried off. Be
sides, it would boa w r asto of water in clay soils,
for every particle would run off as soon it falls,
leaving none on the land to bo gradually absorb
ed, as it would when the rows run on a leveL
This system has had but few advocates in this
county, and has, as far as we are apprised, been
entirely abandoned.
What is known as land culture, is now the
prevailing system among all scientific farmers,
either with or without hill-side ditches. In all
gentle slopes, and many steep declivities in the
more tenacious soils, it acts admirably; and we aro
of opinion if done perfectly there will be but little
if any use for ditches. Os course in old fields where
gullies already exist, the ditches must be re
tained until the land is plowed to a level and the
gullies filled up. But in new lands, if taken at
the outset and done as it should be, we are of
opinion the land culture will protect the soil
sufficiently and much better than with hill-side
ditches. At least so we havo found it, after a
number of years experience. On our old fields,
which had deep gullies when we came into