680 



FARMERS' REGISTER— V/ ASHING OF HILLY LANDS. 



As a top dressin<]:;, tliese ashes are superior to 

 comnioa manure, it ha vino; been found, on makiuji" 

 comparative trials in Fhuulcrs, that the crops of 

 clover, where tiic ashes were used, were much 

 earlier, heavier, and superior in every respect to 

 those which had undern'one a top dressing of horse 

 and cow dung. As a top dressing to the second 

 crop of clover, they will be found highly advanta- 

 geous, as liy being used this way, they wonderfully 

 increase the rapidity of growth and produce. One 

 of the best proofs of their usefulness is the fact, 

 that while we have frequently in this country very 

 backward and light crops of clover and grass, in 

 Flanders, where this top dressing is used, such a 

 defection seldom if ever occurs. They arc there- 

 fore likely to be of great use to the farmer on the 

 lands which have " grown sick of clover;" and 

 the importance of having a good crop of clover is 

 the more obvious, wlien it is considered that, in ge- 

 neral, the succeeding crop of wheat is only good 

 when the preceding crop of clover has been so. 



Besides fertilizing the land, the ashes may be of 

 great advantage in preventing the injuries arising 

 from worms or insects; and will no doubt be high- 

 ly useful as a top dressing, if regularly persevered 

 in for a certain time, in destroying the mosses and 

 lichens so apt to injure the lawns and natural pas- 

 ture in this country. 



1 have found a bushel of these ashes to be about 

 forty pounds in weight. The ton, therefore, con- 

 sists of aliout fifty six bushels. At 3/. per ton, 

 which will be the price from the shop, free of eve- 

 ry charge, the expense of manuring an acre will 

 only be about 11. [or %i 80.] 



ON THE SEVERAT. PLANS USED TO PllEVENT 

 THE WASHING OF HILLY LANDS. 



To the Edilor of the Farmers' Register. 



I perceive by your last No. (9) tliat a Charlotte 

 correspondent has come out in disapprobation of 

 the " trenching" system; and recommends a sub- 

 stitute, for which he vouches his own successful 

 experience. Now, though JNIr. Bruce, as its ori- 

 ginal advocate, will more properly respond to his 

 objections — and though your own editorial remarks 

 will in some measure neutralize what I regard as 

 ,the ill tendency of his piece — yet I nmsf beg sjtace 

 for explanation. I ask it the rather tiiat I have 

 unwittingly committed myself, where I knew not 

 that controversy was likely to arise. And particu- 

 larly because I recognize in " Wardsfork," (if not 

 deceived by internal evidence, as well as the point 

 from which he hails,) "an acquaintance and 

 friend," from whom I have hereJolbre received 

 valua1)le instruction in our common calling; and 

 I should be loath to acquiesce in a difference, which 

 may be more apparent than real. 



The evil complained of is the loss of soil in bro- 

 ken land, produced by the washing of heavy rains. 

 The desideratum is the ])roposal of an ctfectual 

 preventive. . We all knov/ that fiirmerly, in Vir- 

 ginia, extensive occasion was given for injury from 

 this cause, by scourging newly cleared hills with 

 successive hoe crops, without rest under giass — 

 and by injudicious ploughing. By the one, the soil 

 •was worn to barrenness, and thus exhausted of the 

 vegetable fibres which had contributed to its pow- 

 ers of cohesion ; and the parallel furrows of the 

 other, in their perpendicular descent, brought 

 down soil, and substratum, to cover, with a barren 



coating, the more fertile land below.* This de- 

 structive course was continued by many through 

 ignoiance of a lietter ; and even when the era of 

 improvement was commenced, the expediency of 

 attempting to repair the injury already done was 

 not universally acknowledged. " Go on," says A 

 to B, "and while you are saving and improving 

 one hill side, 1 will make another j)roduce money 

 enough to buy a dozen more." This riotous sys- 

 tem could not last. The annual waste of land from 

 this source was immense, and some change for the 

 better became indispensa])le. Happily one was sug- 

 gested, after our forests were much diminished, and 

 the rage for new clearings had begun to subside. 



It is more than thirty years since the late Gov. 

 Randolph introduced on his farm in Albemarle, 

 " horizontal ploughing" and the hill side plough. 

 Both the mode and the implement had, it seems, 

 been known abroad long before. But to him we 

 owe tlie timely bringing to our rescue the invalua- 

 ble aid of the j)ractice itself From him the prac- 

 tice spread rapidly on all sides, until it became al- 

 most universally adopted — meeting a slight resis- 

 tance in its course from the advocates of cross 

 ploughing. I^J ever was any improvement so high- 

 ly lauded, or indeed more properly. And the in- 

 calculable benefit w hich a son of Virginia, by its 

 means, has conferred on our whole country, will 

 excuse a reference which might seem common- 

 place. It instantly, as I conceive, more than 

 iloubled the value of every arable steep in our land. 

 By its means the work was better executed — with 

 greater ease to man and beast — and a reseive of 

 moisture was retained, for nourishing the roots of 

 plants at a season, and in the mode which they 

 most required. 



It was also declared to be a sure preventive of 

 the evil in question; and perhaps, when well per- 

 formed, it is a sufficient preservative of a some- 

 what tenacious soil on a moderate slope. But it 

 was found not to be effectual in all cases. And 

 while it was thus eulogized for virtues which it did 

 not jiossess, some farther change, or addition, was 

 called fiir. 



I had heard of various expedients to meet the exi- 

 gency, such as a partial declination of thebedsand 

 furrows- — leaving a lielt of turf unploughed at the 

 line of stress — Mr. >Skipwith's trenches — and last- 

 ly, what are termed the " graduated furrows." 

 This last I considered most eligii)le, as answering 

 the purpose, and as being free from objections to 

 which the others are liable. It being the last in a 

 series of improvements, of which horizontal plough- 

 ing was the first, my former remarks were predi- 

 cated on their comparative value, and the necessity 

 of this as an occasional auxiliary. The hypotheti- 

 cal case of the conical hill with the spiral furrow 

 was not cited as a guide for practice, liut for the 

 purpose of illustration — and in this view, every 

 rounded hill side may be considered as partof a cone. 



All of the above modes with the exception of 

 the second, are based, on the same principle — that 

 of providing an artificial channel, by which the re- 

 dundant rain fidling in a given space, may be con- 

 ducted from the hill, without carrying the soil with 



* It is said that the late John Randolph of Roanoke, 

 once in passing such a scene, remarked to his travel- 

 hug companion, (pointing towards it with his "fearful 

 fore finger,") " that, I take it, is very far from being real 

 estate, sir." 



