THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



VOL. I. 



mn^mm^wiD^ ^^mv^<^m^ n^'ua^ 



NO. 8. 



EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.— T. W. WHITE, PRINTER. 



ON HORIZONTAL PLOUGHING AND HILL-SIDE 

 DITCHES. 



To ihe Editor of the Farmers' Resister. 



Horizontal trenchino:, the subject of a commu- 

 nication in your last No. (6,) is an improvement 

 of cardinal importance to the ao-riculture of a o-reat 

 iiart of Virginia ; perhaps of the whole soutliern 

 division of the union. And I was nuich pleased, 

 in common I doulit not with many of your read- 

 ers, in meeting with the description of tiie process 

 furnished by your correspondent— a description 

 which would enable an intelligent farmer to in- 

 troduce it on his own estate, witliout the guidance 

 of a successful example before him, or other aid 

 than the directions there laid down. 



This, or some otlier mode based on the same 

 principle, is, as for as the writer knows, tiie only 

 one which has heretofore been used with perfect 

 success for the preservation of soil on steeps. I 

 have long been aware, that in many cases, horizon- 

 tal ploughing alone, would not suffice for this pur- 

 pose. It had fliiled of its promised advantages m 

 so many instances, even when accurately and 

 deeply done, as to discourage many judicious and 

 enterprising farmers from adhering to its practice, 

 without some partial change or addition. 1 he 

 very exactness with which it was executed, often 

 proved injurious — in retaining too much water — if 

 not in producing gullies of which it was proposed 

 as the preventive. 



This may at first appear strange; but let us 

 present an illustration. Let us suppose a conical 

 hill, which has been ploughed around from sum- 

 mit to base in successive, concentric, horizontal 

 circles. It is obvious here, that the soil, if of a re- 

 tentive character, would often be nearly as much 

 saturaled with the water falling on it, as if the 

 whole were reduced to the level of its base. And 

 if the furrows remained unbroken, and so no gully 

 formed (which is quite imi)robable,) the redun- 

 dant water would have to percolate by its gravity 

 to the bottom ; which would generally leave it too 

 wet, long after each heavy rain. Hence the pro- 

 prietv of a graduated furrow, descending spirally 

 from'top to bottom, to conduct off the superfluous 

 water. 



Again. Attentive observers will have remark- 

 ed that gullies are formed on hill-sides, when hori- 

 zontal ploughing has been attempted, not always, 

 (as is generally supposed,) by the water collecting 

 at some low point in a badly executed furrow, and 

 breaking through this to unite its force with that 

 of the next succeeding one, and so on down. This 

 is the continuation of the process; but it usually 

 commences at a higher point. The rain which 

 falls on the flat, or table land, on the top of a hill, 

 will, in seeking its level, tend to the lowest point, 

 so as to reach the heads of the small ravines which 

 seam its side, where the surface is undulating; or 

 so as to scrape the edge of the hill next its brow, 

 where its side is uniform. No.w if this useless 

 water escaped over the surface alone, the danger 

 might be at once seen and guarded against. But 



Vol. I.— 57 



it is chiefly absorbed by the soil ; and penetrating 

 between it and the subsoil, collects in quantities, 

 and presses heavily at some point near the heads 

 of the above-mentioned ravines, and so breaks its 

 way down. The astounded farmer sees the de- 

 parture of his soil, and exclaims against horizon- 

 tal ploughing as its cause. Whereas if he had 

 combined with it the horizontal trenches or gra- 

 duated furrows, as I have henrd them more pro- 

 perly termed, his loss might have been averted. 



U any additional suggestion were necessary to 

 those of JVlr. Bruce, I should suppose that the de- 

 scent need not be arbitrarily fixed at the same 

 de2:ree for all cases, but might vary with the cha- 

 racter of the soil. It might be greater in propor- 

 tion to its stiffness; sometimes admitting a fall of 

 one inch in a span of the rafter level. I should 

 propose too, that in no case where it could be 

 avoided, a fiirrow be made perpendicularly down 

 the side of a hill, but that the graduated one be 

 carried " to the nearest branch or ravine," al- 

 though half a mile off, or more. And when the 

 arable surface of a farm is of an irregular charac- 

 ter, it might be desirable to lay off the fields with 

 reference^o this object. The hill-side plough is a 

 superior implement to the common one lor making 

 the furrows, as it always presents the mould-board 

 to the base of the hill, and thus leaves less work for 

 the hoes. The S[.ade-ditches require a needless 

 expenditure of labor and are moreover inconve- 

 nient for the reason assigned by Mr. Bruce. The 

 writer knows of a number of hill-sides which have 

 been prevented from washing by the use of the 

 graduated furrow alone. 



Proverbially slow as any impro-vement in agri- 

 culture travels, it is passing strange, that the pace 

 of this in particular, should not have been quick- 

 ened, wh«n the farms of so many who have heard 

 of it, call so loudly for its adoption, and it so cheap 

 and simple withal. Highly as the virtues of hori- 

 zontal ploughing have been extolled, and far as 

 they have been trumpeted, I do not remember to 

 have seen this, its valuable auxiliary, alluded to in 

 print more than twice, since its first trial in Vir- 

 o-inia. The first instance, is in the American 

 Farmer, Vol. 13th, page 43d ; where a correspon- 

 dent (over the signature of Re Rustica,) gives a 

 sketch of Mr. Skipwith's mode, and mentions 

 another instrument for levelling. The other ap- 

 pears in page 115th of the same volume, to which 

 an article is transferred from " the Southern Ag- 

 riculturist ;" describing a similar process more 

 particularly, but without any thing on the face of 

 it, to enable the reader to judge whether the cor- 

 respondent of the latter journal, was aware of its 

 being practised elsewhere than in Georgia, from 

 whence he dates his communication. The follov?- 

 ing extract will give an idea of his plan. 



" No planter can wish to retain it, (the redun- 

 dant rain,) but rather to pass it oil as quickly as 

 possible, and with the least detriment to his soil, 

 which cannot be so well done by any other ineans 

 as horizontal ditches across his fields. By hori- 

 zontal ploughing, the moderate and fertilizing 



