116 The Raw Material. [March, 



Since adopting this system of level rows and culture, my manure 

 is saved, and my hill-sides are actually becoming my best land — es 

 pecially for wheat and clover. Another advantage, and no small one 

 either : by this plan, you not only retain and return to the soil every 

 leaf, Loll, blade, ticig and $talk, that falls or is put upon your land, 

 and keep the soil from washing away, but you hold and reap the 

 benefit of every hasty, and sometimes heavy, fall of rain in summer. 



Your resolutions call upon me for the details — my modus operandi, 

 etc. There is no hidden mystery, no magic about it. It is simple, 

 plain and easily comprehended and accomplished, by any pains-tak- 

 ing man, even of the commonest capacity. All my land was leveled 

 with an old fashioned rafter level — the mode of making and using 

 which, I presume all understand. It takes but two pieces of timber 

 — two for the legs and one for the cross piece — the length of the 

 legs, hight of apex, and width of span to be determined by the op- 

 erator himself. It should never be made heavy or unhandy to carry. 

 Ten or twelve feet of span I think enough. Making the span short, 

 insures more accuracy, the great desideratum. I would recommend 

 the use of the ' spirit level ' for the string and plumb, though all 

 my work was done with the latter. I also recommend the spirit lev- 

 el for its greater accuracy, as well as its rapidity of execution. I 

 have always had a plow to follow the level. You lose some time, it 

 is true, with the ' hand and plow,' which might be saved by follow- 

 ing with a smaller chop and the hoe and sticks to mark the row. 

 But my polar star is still in the ascendant here, too. It prevents 

 all mistakes, and thus may sometimes save time j but even if slower, 

 it is more accurate and satisfactory. 



Thus simply equipped, the unostentatious but careful and observ- 

 ing operator goes forth to the field — not as the conquering hero to 

 the sound of martial music — not to lay waste and destroy, but to the 

 sound of the soft matutinal hymn of sweet singing birds ; as the 

 good Samaritan, he goes forth to minister to the crying wants and 

 heal the ghastly, gaping wounds inflicted on their kind old mother 

 Earth, by her careless and uncalculating children. His mission is 

 one of mercy, and no ' balm of Gilead ' was ever more potent to 

 heal and to save, than is the simple remedy he takes along with him 

 in the shape of his plain and unpretending Level. 



How many agricultural Samaritans have we among us? In this 

 truly filial work who will refuse to engage ? 



I do not consider it of great importance at what point in a field you 



