The Bulletin. 17 



pieces to be used for legs so that the ends will rest flat on the floor. Now 

 place one end of each leg against the nails and let the pieces cross above your 

 head and just exactly over the center of the rod span. Put a bolt here 

 through both pieces fasten them together at the point A then we have two 

 legs of the level, AB and AC. Now take the third piece and use as a cross- 

 bar, DE. Fasten the piece DE to AC at about D, bolt so as to permit it to 

 work easily. Now place firmly on DE in the center a spirit level, such as you 

 can get from almost any hardware store for ten cents. Bring DE, at E end, 

 to a point on leg AB, where the spirit level indicates level ; then mark or put 

 a bole through both for bolt to work in. This hole on AB leg we call zero, 

 which means level. Now we wish to make a scale that will enable us to run 

 a terrace having a fall anywhere from an inch to four inches. Let some one 

 raise the foot of AB one inch and lower cross-bar DE until level ; then put 

 a hole through AB leg, and call this hole No. 1. Now raise foot of AB two 

 inches and put another hole in AB leg and call it No. 2, and so on until we 

 make our scale to four or five inches. The half-inch is then gotten by dividing 

 the distance between holes and numbering halves. Now we have an instru- 

 ment made that should not cost more than fifty cents at the outside, and will, 

 if properly handled, suffice for most of this kind of work. 



In terracing a field start about three feet from the top of the hill, and begin 

 to lay off the first terrace. Usually about one to two inches fall to the rod 

 will be sufficient. Try to put the second terrace so that it will be about three 

 to four feet lower than the first, and so on down the hill until the whole field 

 is terraced. Now, if a field has a swag about the center and water collects 

 from both directions in this swag, to avoid this begin the terrace in the swag 

 and go both ways, providing there is a good outlet at each end. Lay off the 

 terrace, giving one to two inches fall, as desired, by fastening the cross-bar 

 DE at E in the hole giving the fall desired. Start at the point we have 

 selected to begin, and. let the short leg, or the leg with the scale on it, be 

 up-hill. The place for the terrace is found by raising the foot of the instru- 

 ment up or down hill until the proper level is obtained, then let the boy carry- 

 ing pegs stick one at the front end of the level ; then go with the instrument 

 to that point, and repeat same operation until all the terraces are laid off. 

 When you come to a gulley make half sets with the instrument and set up- 

 grade stakes to tell how high to build the banks to prevent breaking over by 

 heavy rains. Now walk back over the line of stakes and when a place is 

 found where there is too short a turn in the terrace, straighten a little or give 

 a more gentle curve by moving the upper stakes a little down-hill; never 

 move lower stakes up-hill. 



After the terrace has been staked out a furrow can be run connect- 

 ing the stakes. If desired, the terrace can be listed up by throwing 

 several furrows together and the trees planted on the terrace. In 

 planting orchards on contours it is impossible to have- the trees line up 

 as they would do on even land. The first row is set by simply spacing 

 the trees along the contour at the regular distance desired. The second 

 row is set by as nearly as possible alternating the trees with those in 

 the first row set. As the work of setting proceeds the trees in each 

 row will be alternated with those in the row preceding it. On account 

 of the variability of slope it will be found impossible to exactly alter- 

 nate the trees. Occasionally a tree will have to be shifted one way or 

 the other, or one left out, in order to keep the spaces between the trees 

 fairly uniform. 



