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 untilled 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 
