44 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



is here that we must look for the best practice in 

 improving hillside lands by terracing. The cotton 

 growers of the hilly uplands have adopted this 

 system very widely and with great success to 

 prevent the terrible loss from erosion or washing 

 that always occurs when light, friable, hillside soils 

 are carelessly tilled. Two methods to avoid loss 

 from washing are adopted by the cotton farmer. 

 The first is called circling the rows. Instead of 

 laying out the rows in straight lines running up and 

 down the hills, as is so often carelessly done, a row is 

 first carefully laid out on a grade or contour line 

 so that all parts of it shall be exactly on the same 

 level. Such a row Avill circle in and out along an 

 irregular hillside in a Avay that is sufficiently per- 

 plexing to one unaccustomed to this method. Other 

 rows are then run parallel to this first one, and short 

 ones are introduced, whenever necessary, to keep the 

 rows strictly on contour lines. Such crooked rows 

 look very peculiar and unbusinesslike to the farmer 

 from the level prairies, and the system is open to the 

 objection that cultivation is only possible in one 

 direction; but when the laying out is properly done, 

 it unquestionably does much to prevent the terrible 

 loss from washing that is the bane of the hillside 

 farmer. 



This circling of the rows is regarded as a more or 

 less temporary expedient. When it is intended to 

 make a permanent improvement, the liillsides are 

 laid out in terraces. To do this it is usual to start 

 at the bottom of the hill and with a surveyor's level 

 lay out a contour line, marking it with small stakes 



