1838] 



FARMERS' REGrSTER 



75^ 



by the tnp-drcssing orgfiilly cl;iy, iuliiionicsli us that 

 some reiueciy for this evi! miisl be aiioptetl, or that 

 this ulcer will increase uuiil it has eaten up all the 

 soil on our broken lands. My own observiitiou has 

 led rue to the liecided onvietio.i, that lands mode- 

 rately hilly are much the most desirable, both for 

 productiveness and permanency, as arable lands. 

 They are less liable to sourness by retaining an 

 over portion of water, and can be worked with 

 propriety when level lands are sobbed and wet; 

 and upon an average they are usually most fertile 

 by nature. An injudicious system of' culture has 

 exposed them to destruction fi'om washin<i, and so 

 genera! has been this operation, that but a small 

 portion ot'tlie hilly land, which has been cleared 

 for 20 or 30 years, is of any value whatever, 1 

 1 was an attentive reader of the many interesting 

 and instructive papers, published Iromtimelo 5in\e, 

 in your journal on this subject. I have lor the last 

 fif'ieen years, attentively observed the various 

 plans which have been adopted by my neighbors 

 and others in relation to this important end, and 

 am much gratified to observe a manifest improve- 

 ment in the condition of things. A protracted dis- 

 cussion was maintained in your Register, as to the 

 relative vulue of hill-side ditches, or another sys- 

 tem which I was never able fully to discriminate 

 from it; there seemed to be, in fact, but little diffe- 

 rence between the mode proposed by Mr. J. C. 

 Bruce, and your correspondent "Wardsfork;" they 

 mainly differed as to the propriety of letting off the 

 water on a plot of herd's gra-ss, or dischartring it 

 in a ditch between the hills. My own experience 

 has fully confirmed me in the conclusion, that the 

 water should be discharged on a permanent grass 

 plot^ which should always be sown in every ravine 

 when land is first cleared, and in old lands, on the 

 first effort to improve them. When the field is in 

 cultivation, they may be mowed for hay; when in 

 pasture they are much the most productive parts of 

 the whole. The imperfection of the hill-side fur- 

 row, or ditch, whether opened with the plough 

 and hoe, or with the spade, is, that heavy rains 

 cause them to overflow and break, and fill them 

 up with sand and mud; and where they break, a 

 gully is made at once. The cleaning out is a se- 

 rious labor, and if neu'iected, they become utterly 

 worthless. They are often constructed with too 

 little fall, and almost uniformly too long. If duff 

 out with a spade, and made deep and wide enouurh 

 for the discharge of very heavy rains, they require 

 bridges to pass them with carts and vvaQons, and 

 are very inconvenient in obstructing fi-ee passage 

 in hauling up the crops. I have tried each of the 

 above described plans, and am disposed to chamxe 

 them for one which I shall proceed to describe. 

 Refore doing so, however, [ mui5f remark that I 

 approve of ail the plans to a irreat extent, as ail of 

 them preserve land, and are decidedly preferable 

 to the old destructive system. 



My attention was first called to what I esteem 

 the best mode of draiifing and preserving hill-sides, 

 bv the practice of Richard N. Venable, Esq. of 

 Prince Edward; who has combined the most effi- 

 cient means of preserving land from washing, and 

 reclaiming that already wafihed and gullied. 



Instead of a graduated ditch or fijrrow with a 

 bank thrown up by the plough or spade, which 

 presents an uncultivated ridge, all along the bank 

 of the ditch, grown up with briers, bushes and 

 Weeds, a bed should be thrown up bv the plough 

 Vol.V-95 



ten or eleven feet wide, graduated with sujTicient 

 fall to dischar<fe the water, with a deep waler- 

 Ihrrow on the, upper side of" the bed leading to the 

 first ravine, where there is a grass plot to receive 

 the water and conduct it off. This bed is |)lough- 

 ed up with the rest of the field, and cultivated with 

 it, always taking care that the bed is left in the 

 same place, and the lurrovv opened with the 

 ploucrh. These iieds are made sufficieutly nume- 

 rous to drain all the water which fiills on the land; 

 and the intermediate spaces cultivated level, or as 

 in;\y be preferred, or according to the nature of 

 the cl-op. This bank or bed being wide and strong, 

 and withal of a capacity to be measured by esti- 

 mating the s)iace from the highest part of the bed. 

 to a corresponding level above it, will rarely, if 

 ever, overflow; and if it should, ii will only dis- 

 charge the surplus water, and not cut away th6 

 whole wide bed, as it always does the bank of th6 

 ditch or furrow when the accumulation of water 

 causes a breach in the bank. Under this system^ 

 the whole field is cultivated, and you will have to 

 walk over it in order to see the beds; the eye is 

 not offended with those uncultivated banks which 

 wind around the hill, and present obstacles both 

 to ploughing, and passing with plantation car- 

 riages. Herds' grass seed should be sown in the 

 bottoms of all the gullies, and protected with a lit- 

 tle brush, and stimulated with a little manure; and 

 a draining bed heaped up at its head, the sides of 

 the gully gradually ploughed down, until it pre- 

 sents after some years merely a wave in the land, 

 and is ultimately reclaimed. 



I consider hetds' grass the great reclaimer, as 

 well as preventive of washing in lands. Unlike 

 clover and timothy, or most of our indigenous 

 grasses, it is a perennial turf; having this advan- 

 tage of green sward, that the turf is stronger, re- 

 sists the sun and drought better, and will grow on 

 poorer soils, as well as in the most swampy and 

 wet. It is a great producer, and makes the finest, 

 hay; I repeat the advice to sow a narrow belt of 

 from twelve to fifteen feet in each considerable ra- 

 vine, which must be permitted lo stay untouched; 

 when the field is ploughed for cultivation it is a 

 complete protection against any wash there; a fine 

 spot of meadow or pasture; and the additional 

 moisture which it receives by being used as the 

 receiver and conductor of the hill-side water frorn 

 the draining beds, secures a certain and heavy crop, 

 for grazing or hay. 



In order to complete success, the beds should 

 be as short as convenient, and the fall considera- 

 ble, just so as to prevent washing in the discharg- 

 ing furrow. It is always best when there is a con- 

 siderable distance between two ravines, to begin 

 in the middle of the hill-side, and discharge the 

 furrows each way; thus securing a rapid passage 

 to the water, and efliecfually preventing such ac- 

 cumulation as would overflow the beds. Land 

 thus laid ofl should be always cultivated with re- 

 feren.'ie to this organi?;;ition, and the bed will re- 

 tt>in its height and position. 



I have on mv farm each of the modes of drain- 

 in;; and preservino; hill-sides in use, and decidedly 

 prefer the last described, and shall adopt it exclu- 

 sively as the shifts are brouglit in cultivation, f 

 have thrown out the above hints and send them 

 to v'ou, that if they should be thought of sufficient 

 vali>€j they may be pubiiehed in yew Register. 

 A. W Vekable, 



