COTTON CULTURE. 105 



Iii cultivating the land that has been thus prepared, let 

 the plowing correspond in direction and slope to these 

 ditches. In this manner, all the middles between the beds 

 will have the same fall, that is, one foot in a hundred ; 

 and, except in very long and violent storms, no water will 

 pass over from one ridge to the other, that is, no wash 

 will ever cross the ridges or beds. But when the rain is 

 very copious, the circle ditches are at hand with a firm, 

 sodded bank, to arrest the destructive torrent and confine 

 the waters to their prescribed courses. 



In this manner, all the fertilizing properties of the soil 

 may be retained in it, and directed to the growth of useful 

 plants ; whereas, if washing is freely permitted, the hill- 

 side becomes nothing but a series of sluices for carrying 

 off some of the best constituents of the mould or earth 

 above. 



The above rule of one foot in a hundred is not given as 

 a specific. In some localities it will do ; on other soils it 

 is too steep. Judgment and experience only will give the 

 true grade. The plan above recommended differs but lit- 

 tle from that described by Mr. Forman in his paper, pub- 

 lished in the Patent Office Reports for 1852. 



Mr. Forman recommends changing the gra<^e of the 

 circle ditch every fifty yards, making it steeper and 

 steeper as the bottom of the hill is reached. 



Unless the nature of the soil changes materially, I do 

 not see the propriety of Mr. Forman's suggestion. If a 

 fall of one inch in twelve feet is proper near the top of the 

 hill, why is not that the best grade on the middle and near 

 the bottom of the slope? 



He proposes a fall of one inch in twelve feet for the first 

 fifty yards, counting from the summit; two inches in 

 twelve feet for the next fifty yards; four in twelve feet 

 for the next fifty, and so on to the bottom. 



For most hill lands, in the cotton States, a grade of one 

 inch in ten feet for the entire distance will be found better. 

 5* 



