FARMERS' REGISTER— WASHING OF HILLY LANDS. 681 



it. Nor, I conceive, is Wardsfork's founded on a | mises to retain both soil and manure, is not light- 

 different one, but is a mere variation from, or per- ly to be rejected, without providing a better sub- 



haps an improvement on tliat which he so pointed- 

 ly condemns. Tiiere are not a few points of re- 

 semblance between them. In either case the same 

 levelling instrument is used — the same graduation 

 adopted. The beds and the furrows are recom- 

 mended to be placed at the same intervals apart. 

 Each commences at a middle point on the face of 

 the hill, and proposes the descent from thence to the 

 ravines respectively on the right and left. And it 

 the beds be thrown up as high as Wardsfork sug- 

 gests, there is above each, emphatically, a " gra- 

 duated furrow," or shallow ditch, however olFen- 

 sive the name. With tliis difference, that what is 

 an embankment in the one case, and therefore 

 safer, is but a bed in the other, i. e. an embank- 

 ment flattened, and having its edges rounded off. 

 It is in fact but transferring to a steep the mode of 

 draining recommended in your No. 7. You have 

 already said, editorially, that the turfed ravines 

 may be used in connection with either mode. 

 Wardsfork lives in a region whose general aspect 

 is materially different fi-om that in which the wri- 

 ter of this resides. I suppose his hills are not 

 long, and mostly of gradual elevation. To them, 

 I doubt nol, from his own experience, that his sys- 

 tem of tlirowing up high beds at intervals, may 

 be judiciously applied. But how would it take in 

 our mountains, some of which are cultivated to 

 the very tops. " This tricke," as old Barnaby 

 Googe said of the reaping machine, " might be 

 used in level and champion countreys, but with 

 us I trowe, it wold make but ill-flivored worke."* 

 We have many arable hills in Virginia so steep 

 that the highest bed which Wardsfork could raise 

 with ills best ploughs and teams, and the after 

 dressing to boot, would not suffice to prevent the 

 over-passage of the water. And the longer the 

 hill the greater the difficulty ; and we could rely 

 on them still less where the soil was light and 

 loose, and had previously been worn into gullies. 

 Most of Wardsfork's objections to the difching 

 system relate either to its imperfect execution or 

 its abuse ; and all may he obviated when it is 

 useil, as it has been modified in some places. 



In the first place, I believe that the alleged loss 

 of crops, by abstracting so much land from cul- 

 ture, even where the ditches are as wide and deep 

 as those of Mr. Skipwith, is founded on a misapprc 

 hension. There is certainly no loss in the long 

 run, when compared with the old mode. It pro- 

 ceeds from a fallacy which unhappily has been loo 

 prevalent heretofore in Virginia. The acre which 

 produces doul)le the crop of another, is of more 

 than double its value; as for these different pro- 

 ducts, the same amount of labor is bestowed on 

 each. But the inquiry among us too often is, not 

 what is the relative strength of our fields.'' but 

 how many corn fields (good, bad, or indifferent) 

 is the proper crop to '' pitch" for a given number 

 of hands? And there are many who persist to this 

 day in cultivating parts of fields, the products of 

 which, while unmanured, will not repay the charge 

 of tillage. This is more particularly the case in 

 broken lands, which they are discouraged from 

 attempting to improve. For, as Mr. Bruce says, 

 why manure them, when the first rain may sweep 

 it entirely away. Any expedient then, which pro- 



* See Farmers' Rrsister, No. 7, pas:e 107. 

 Vol. I.— 86 



stitute, applicable even to extreme cases. 



Now I would call Wardsfork's attention to a 

 fact which he may have oflen ol)served Let him 

 view from an opposite eminence the side of any 

 rounded hill which is surmounted by a level of 

 considerable breadth, and which, having been 

 cleared and cultivated in the usual style fol- seve- 

 ral years, is again recently ploughed. Even if no 

 gully is presented, he will probably perceive three 

 different shades of color, and it is likelj', as many 

 different qualities of soil. The middle belt will 

 be in far better heart than either that above or be- 

 low it, both of which will partake of the nature 

 and appearance of the subsoil. This I suppose to 

 be occasioned thus. The water which falls on the 

 flat land above, is absorbed and secretly settling 

 towards the brow of the hill in large force, either 

 bears off the soil on its bosom, or else strains it 

 (so to speak) of its fertilizing properties, and car- 

 ries them down to the middle portion. As this is 

 a broadcast operation, there is acciimitlnted, as it 

 were, a double layer of soil on this belt, which now 

 presents a barrier strong enough to 1/e stationary 

 itself: but the water passing over, or through it, 

 meets with less resistance in the breadth of soil 

 next the base of the hill, and either carries it, or 

 its strength, to the bottom. Such is the effect of 

 the constant action of rains for a series of years. 

 And the proprietor of such a hill, who has contri- 

 ved to prevent a breath, (perhaps by having a 

 stiff soil on a clay substratum,) flatters himself 

 that he has succeeded in preserving the soil itself, 

 when in fact, a large portion of it is reduced to a 

 caput mortuum. Now, there is little doubt here, 

 that had graduated furrows been interposed at the 

 several lines of stress, to arrest the wafer in its de- 

 scent, and give it a different direction, the whole 

 result would have been different. There can be as 

 little that the farmer, in their adoption, would 

 have been more than doubly compensated for the 

 portion of land appj-opriated to them, by their pre- 

 ventive good, as well as by the assurance of great- 

 er permanence to any future improvement he 

 might impart to the intervals. Not to mention 

 that, the gradual deepening of the soil, i. e. the 

 increase of its quantity as well as quality, is a pri- 

 mary object which the cultivator should never 

 lose sight of", and which can only be insured by 

 some such mode. 



Time was when the bedding of alluvial flats on 

 the margins of streams was objected to on the 

 same account, viz : that all the land occupied by 

 tlie water furrows was lost to the grain crop. But 

 even supposing that the rounded form of the beds 

 did not repay this, the increased product, from ef- 

 fectual draining, more than counterbalances this 

 partial injury. The graduated furrows, however, 

 are used on hill sides, and when we consider tiie 

 upward growth of plants, it will be found that, as 

 in the case of garden terraces, they virtually de- 

 mand much less space for themselves, than from 

 a side view, would be supposed. 



But experience has shown that it is not necessa- 

 ry to have them in all cases as wide or deep as 

 those of Mr. Skipwitli. Those present a needless 

 array of means for tiic desired end; and if the ad- 

 ditional labor could be conveniently spared, to dig 

 such little races on the hills of Wardsfork's Cham- 

 pagne country, would be like breaking flies on a 



