FARMERS' REGISTER— HORIZONTAL PLOUGHING. 



559 



very inconvenient and ollcn iminanageable accu- 

 mulation of water: or if tiie ditches and furrows 

 were not very deep, an overflow would occur, 

 sweeping every thing betbre it. This may be pre- 

 vented, where rock abounds, by paving straioht 

 down-hill channels, as passages lor the water. 

 But, where rock is scarce — which is apt to be the 

 case on such lands — I know no reliance so safe as 

 that on farrows and ditches perfectly level. It 

 these are accurately and deeply made, so that each 

 spot of ground has charge only of the water which 

 lialls upon it, no ordinary shower can injure. But 

 even in our heaviest iallsof rain, should the bank 

 in any given spot overflow, the water may have 

 to traverse a consideraljle distance belore it can 

 acquire a further descent; and, as it is rapidity of 

 current, in a direct descent, which produces gul- 

 leys, this mode of management oli'ers the best 

 preservative against them, in my knowledge. I 

 have practised it successfully for many years, and, 

 at my present residence, which I have occupied 

 for eight years, I have obliterated hundreds ol 

 small gulleys, and many large ones, which had 

 formed under the old mode of ploughing. It is 

 true, that in a large field, two or three breaches 

 may be found in the banks. This, however, is 

 not ascribable to the mode of ploughing, but to a 

 careless departure from it; and may readily be 

 remedied, by moving the ditches at such places, a 

 little higher up the hill; or, by forming dams across 

 them, at suitable places, on each side of the breach, 

 to stop the current of water tending that way. 

 Indeed, such dams across the ditches might be ad- 

 vantageously made, by way of safeguard against 

 the too great accumulation of water in one place, 

 even where no breach has actually occurred. 

 This would be in accordance with a plan proposed 

 by a sensible writer in some number of the Regis- 

 ter, of making dams, even across graduated 

 ditches, in order to retain water from slight show- 

 ers. 



Having objected to the mode of operating with 

 the rafter-level, that it is tedious, and believing 

 that this diiRculty deters multitudes from levelling 

 at all, it becomes me to offer a substitute, which 1 

 know by experience to be more expeditious, and 

 to answer the purpose well — at least on lands ly- 

 ing well. The implement which I have most 

 commonly used, resembles in shape, a common 

 pair of winding blades [or reel.] It has two hori- 

 zontal cross-pieces, three feet long, at right angles 

 to each other, firmly braced at the point of their 

 intersection, on the head of a stout and strong up- 

 right staff, and accurately at right angles to it. 

 This upright should be about five feet in length; 

 its lower end should be sharpened, for sticking in 

 the ground — a slit or mortice should be cut 

 through it about two and a half feet long, exactly 

 in the centre of which a silken cord should hang, 

 with a small bullet at its lower end, ivnmediately 

 over a small pivot, cr other mark indicating the 

 centre of tiie staff, at the lower end of the mortice. 

 A very thin piece of wood, or a piece of leather, 

 Bhoulii be fastened on one side of the mortice to 

 keep ofi^ the wind from the plumb in levelhng. 

 With this implement, a brisk and intelligent over- 

 seer with two good assistants, after a little expe- 

 rience, may level an hundred acres of gently undu- 

 lating land, in a day. 



In operating, the leveller should station himself 

 on a hill-side, and adjust the plumb of his level, 



near the head of a gulley — if there be one. One 

 of his assistants should stand just above the head 

 of the gulley, with a black staff or rod eight or 

 nine ft^et long, with a strip of white paper tied 

 around it, for an object for the leveller to sight at. 

 The rod should be placed perpendicularly^ on the 

 ground, and the paper made to range with the 

 eye of the leveller, who looks over the cross-arms 

 of the level. The bearer of the rod should then 

 be sent on to another station. Another assistant 

 should with a hoe, plainl}^ mark the ground at 

 each station of the rod-bearer and between them, 

 carefully curving his line of marks, to suit the 

 shape of the hill, to prevent angular ploughing, 

 when he comes to guide the plough along his 

 track. It is well, if the ploughman himself should 

 carry the black staff, using the marker when he 

 begins to |,lough the ditches, as a guide to his team. 

 The leveller will be surprised to find how nearly 

 to the same level the heads of all gulleys on a 

 hill -side are located, when he traverses the hill on 

 a level, near its brow. After making provision 

 for ditching just above the heads of all the gulleys, 

 so as to keep the water out of them, the operator 

 may proceed to levelling the remainder of the 

 field. This he may do, by going higher up, or 

 lower ilown the hill as he likes, recollecting, that 

 the le\'el ditches will approach nearest each other, 

 in the most precipitous land, and that of course, 

 one of such places should be chosen, in which to 

 start a new line of levelling. As it is important 

 not to lose time in frequently adjusting the level, 

 spots affording the widest range of vision, should 

 be chosen for this purpose. These are commonly 

 bottoms or ravines, with hills on each side. When 

 necessary to change the station, the black rod may 

 be set up at the mark last made Avith the hoe, and 

 the paper moved up or down on it, to suit the sight 

 over the fu'ms of the level. This can be done 

 much sooner than the level could be adjusted to 

 suit the onginal height of the paper, and much 

 time is saved by it. I have usually found it best 

 very gradually to elevate the ditches a little above 

 the level, around the heads of gulleys and bot- 

 toms. In doing this, I tie a number of strips of 

 paper an inch or two apart, around the black rod, 

 sighting at the one immediately below the hand 

 of" its bearer, directing him to elevate or depress 

 his hand to suit me, as he changes his stations. 

 A practised eye, however, can do this graduation 

 tolerably without the aid of the papers. 



The black rod may be dispensed with in clean 

 land, and the operator may sight at the ground. 

 But the work cannot be done so well, as clods and 

 hillocks confuse the vision when sighting at a dis- 

 tance. In high weeds and broom-sedge the rod is 

 indispensable. If the rod is made long, and the 

 land is nearly level, the operator may save time 

 by carrying on two marked lines from one station. 

 To do this, he sights at a paper near the lower end 

 of the rod for the line above him, and at one near 

 its top for that below him. 



Hiere are several objections to this implement. 

 It is very liable to be warped out of level by the sun 

 and weather, and to be jostled or Avrecked by the 

 force requisite to drive its point into the ground. It 

 should therefore be made as strong as possible, and 

 of good timber, with the crof s-pieces guarded, as 

 well as possible, against warping. It will then do 

 ^ood work. A well made metallic one would be 

 free from these objections, and would not be very 



