FARMERS' REGISTER— HILL-SIDE DITCHES. 



663 



he can pass without upsetting, across he drives — 

 and the lirst rain takes the cart track, and down it 

 goes with tenfold velocity to the next trench — 

 breaks over that, and so on until it reaches the bot- 

 tom, carrying- destruction before it. These are 

 matters of fact, obvious to every man of common 

 sense. And lastly, I object to any improvement, 

 the details of which are so hard to be complieil 

 with, as to insure their non-fulfilment in nine cases 

 out of ten. As the value of all improvements con- 

 sists mainly in their simplicity, their cheapness 

 and their complete accomplishment of the end 

 sought to be obtained, (in all of which respects the 

 trenching system is deficient,) I shall do all in ray 

 power to check its extension ; and recommend to 

 all those who have not fully entered into that sys- 

 tem, to try the one I shall hereafter describe, in con- 

 trast ; and if it is not found preferable, in all the 

 particulars above referred to, I will forfeit my 

 claim to any knowledge of the practical improve- 

 ment of our lands. In the first place then, if you 

 have a field you design to secure from washing, and 

 improve under regular cultivation, sow it down in 

 small grain, (wheat, oats or rye, as it may suit 

 the taste or interest of the farmer,). and sow all the 

 hill sides too steep for convenient and profitable 

 cultivation, and all the narrow bottoms running 

 up into the field, in herds grass, so that it will have 

 formed a regular turf, by the time the field comes 

 round upon the four shift system for cultivation in 

 a hoe crop. Then when you commence jdough- 

 ing the field preparatory for the hoe crop, (having 

 prepared yourself with a common rafter or wafer 

 level,) take your station with your best plough- 

 man about the middle of a hill, thirty, forty or 

 even sixty yards from the top of the hill, (accord- 

 ing to the declivity,) and mark off a track for the 

 plough to follow, giving about an inch fo every 

 twelve feet, until you meet the ])lat of turf in the 

 bottom on your right ; theji return where you 

 started, and proceed in the same way until you 

 reach the opposite bottom, Avhich gives the foun- 

 dation for the firc^l L>ed. In throwing up the Led, 

 be careful to leave as much solid ground in the 

 middle, as the plough will cover with the two first 

 furrows, and then complete the bed with four other 

 furrows, thrown up as high as possible. Then go 

 on thirty or sixty yards lower down, (according 

 to the length of the slope,) and throw up another 

 bed in the same manner, always emptying the fur- 

 rows on the turf in the bottoms, which should ne- 

 ver be broken, and so on until you have thrown up 

 beds enough to protect the whole field from wash- 

 ing, which will be eflectual if laid off with even 

 tolerable accuracy. Your other ploughs, in the 

 meantime, may liave follov.edon, bedding or flush- 

 ing the land, being careful whenever they get to a 

 bed to plough it over again; that is, double bed it, 

 in order to make it higher, and strong enough effec- 

 tually to resist the strongest current of water that 

 may come against it, the water furrow on the up- 

 per side of the bed being designed to carry off the 

 water to the grass in the bottoms, from whence it 

 will be safely conducted out of the field. In plant- 

 ing your corn in the spring, plough the beds also, 

 being careful, in cultivating the corn, never to 

 throw down the beds, but always to dress them up 

 with the plough and hoes, 'riius you lose not 

 one foot of ground, and your land is sale from 

 washing; the bottoms and steep hill sides, (if rich 

 enough,) v/ill afford you a fine crop of hay, v/hich 



is worth as much as any other crop whatever. 

 These beds present no obstacle to your carts in 

 getting off your crop, being so broad as to be 

 passedwith facility, and so high as not to be easily 

 cut through with "the wheels and made liable to.be 

 broken with the rains. Here is a system then that 

 is remarkable, 1st. for its simplicity ; 2dly. for its 

 cheapness ; and 3dly. for its complete adaptation to 

 the end in view. 



I kno^v a farm in this part of the country that 

 ten years ago was a complete waste, being literal- 

 ly covered vvitii hen's-nest grass and gullies, that 

 now, under this system, presents a prospect every 

 way delightful to behold : instead of hen's-nest 

 grass and gullies, you now see the majestic corn, 

 the waving wheat, and the heavy swath of mown 

 grass. "Where there were gullies from four to six 

 feel deep, is now a solid turf of herd's grass, yield- 

 ing heavy crops of hay. In fact, the whole farm 

 presents a scene of luxuriance and plenty, amply 

 repaying its owner (or ail the toil and expense he 

 has incurred in restoring it to its (more than) ori- 

 ginal fertility. One of the most pleasing reflec- 

 tions I have, growing out of all my farming opera- 

 tions, is that of having restored worn out and waste 

 land to fertility and life again. Indeed I feel thank- 

 ful and happy, in having it in my power to say, 

 that, in the ten years I have been fiirming, I have in- 

 creased the fertility of fifty acres for every one that 

 I have injured. And in the v.hole ten years, I have 

 not cleared more than was absolutely necessary 

 for rails and fire wood ; finding it easier to improve 

 two acres than to clear one. I think it a criminal 

 abuse of the gifts of Providence to cut down and 

 wear out land, and turn it out to grow up in hen's- 

 nest grass and old field pine. Such has been the 

 ruinous policy of our forefi\thers : and hence it be- 

 comes the imperative duty of us, their posterity, 

 to deprecate and abandon a system so injurious in 

 its tendencies and ruinous in its consequences. And 

 I am happy to say, that in this part of the country, 

 mind is operating upon mind, and opinion strug- 

 gling with opinion, lor light and knowledge ; eve- 

 ry faculty of man is in a state of improvement ; 

 intelligence meets with and combats ignorance, 

 and ignorance becomes enlightened by the conflict. 

 So also in religion, infidelity is overcome by faith, 

 and truth elicited by error. In such a state of 

 things, while every man is testing his own powers 

 and examining the advances and capacities of oth- 

 ers, and attempting to place all things on the im- 

 mutable basis of truth and justice — although 

 there may be a good share of error abroad in our 

 land, )'et I feel disposed to congratulate my agri- 

 cultural brethren, (not that we have attained to a 

 great height in the scale of improvement, but) that 

 our noblest faculties and energies are exerted 

 (mainly) in the right channel, and are rapidly 

 progressing to a hapjiy consummation. 



WARDSFORK. 



Charlcttee, Jan. 2d, 183-1. 



[It is not our province to determine between two 

 farmers on a subject on wliich each has dl•a^Vn informa- 

 tion from j)ractical experience, as well as a full conside- 

 lation of, and reasoning upon, existing circumstances. 

 But it may be permitted us to say, that there is much 

 liss difference between our former and present corres- 

 pondent, than would be inferred from tlie commencing 

 remarks of the latter. While condemning some of the 

 minor parts of Mr. Brace's plan, * Wardsfurk' indirect- 



