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-71- 

 JEFFERSON TO TRISTRAM DALTON, FROM MONTICELLO, MAY 2, 1817 



Jefferson and his son-in-law, T. M. Randolph, practiced hori- 

 zontal plowing and bedding as a method of erosion 

 control. The follov/ing description is, 

 therefore, of special interest, 



A method of ploughing our hillsides horizontally, introduced into 

 this most hilly part of our country by Col. T. M. Randolph, my son 

 in law, may be worth mentioning to you. He has practiced it a 

 dozen or 15 years, and it's advantages v/ere so immediately observed 

 that it has already become very general, and has entirely changed and 

 renovated the face of our country, every rain, before that, while it 

 gave a temporary refreshment, did permanent evil by carrying off our 

 soil and fields were no sooner cleared than washed, at present we may 

 say that we lose none of our soil, the rain not absorbed at the moment 

 of its fall being retained in the hollov/s between the beds until it 

 can be absorbed, our practice is when we first enter on this process, 

 with a rafter level of 10. f. span, to lay off guide lines conducted 

 horizontally around the hill or valley from one end to the other of 

 the field, and about 30. yards apart, the steps of the level on the 

 ground are marked by a stroke of a hoe, and immediately followed by a 

 plough to preserve the trace, a man or a lad, with a level, and two 

 small boys, the one with sticks, the other with the hoe, will do an 

 acre of this in an hour, and when once done it is forever done. we 

 generally level a field the year it is put into Indian corn, laying it 

 into beds of 6.f. wide with a large water furrow between the beds, 

 until all the fields have been once levelled, the intermediate fur- 

 rows are run by the eye of the ploughman governed by these guide 

 lines. the inequalities of the declivity in the hill will vary in 

 places the distance of the guide lines and occasion gores which are 

 thrown into short beds. as in ploughing very steep hillsides hori- 

 zontally a common plough can scarcely throw the furrow up hill, Colo. 

 Randolph has contrived a very simple alteration of the share, which 

 throws the furrow down hill both going and coming. It is as if two 

 shares were welded together at their straight side and at a right angle 

 with each other. this turns on its bar as on a pivot, so as to lay 

 either share horizontal, when the other becoming vertical acts as a 

 mouldboard. this is done by the ploughman in an instant by a single 

 motion of the hand at the end of every furrow. . .horizontal and deep 

 ploughing with the use of plaster and clover are but beginning to be 

 used here will, as we believe, restore this part of our country to its 

 original fertility, which was exceeded by no upland in the state. - 

 p. L. Ford, ed.. The Works of Thomas Jeffe rso n, 12:56-57 (New York, f^. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons, 1904) . 



