140 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



among the hills, they need to be adapted to suit the condi- 

 tions found on the steeper slopes. To plow a fertile slope in 

 furrows that run up and down its face is to invite the storm 

 waters into prepared channels that they may carry the soil 

 away. Too often the surveyor's lines take no account of the 

 true boundaries of nature's fields, and the plowman knows 

 not the existence of a law of gravity. Many a green hillside, 

 fit to raise permanent crops in perpetuity, has been cleared 

 and plowed and wasted in hardly more time than was neces- 

 sary to kill the roots of the native vegetation. Fortunate 

 is our outlook if the hills round about us are not scarred with 

 fields that bear silent testimony to such abuse — fields that are 

 gullied and barren, with their once rich top soil, the patri- 

 mony of the ages washed away,. 



It is no small part of the glory of many charming inland 

 valleys that is contributed by the noble woods that climb 

 the side of its bordering steeps. The clearing of such land 

 should never be allowed; for rightly managed, it will go on 

 raising trees forever (and probably there is no better use for 

 it), and the scenic beauty, the restfulness and charm which 

 it contributes to the landscape is a valuable public asset. 

 Steep slopes may be tilled permanently if the tiller of the 

 soil will take a hint from nature and regard the law of 

 gravity — if he will run his culture lines horizontally, break 

 the slope with terraces, and hold the front of these with 

 permanent plantings. Some of the most beautiful .land- 

 scapes of the old world are found among terraced hills that 

 have been cultivated for centuries. But the simpler method 

 of holding the soil together by untitled crops — pastures and 

 tree crops — is probably more suited to American conditions. 



Fortunate is our outlook, also, if in the midst of thriving 

 farms and forested hills, there be left a little bit of land here 

 and there that has not been too much "improved." A bit 

 of wildwood, where the brush is not cut nor the swamp 



