MANAGEMENT OF MEADOWS. 245 



rock, and cover with a fourth. Or instead of using four 

 rocks, a very good ditch can be made by tilting two flat 

 rocks to each other so that a transverse section will form an 

 A shaped tunnel, and if there is a firm bed to the ditch it 

 will last an indefinite length of time, the water carrying off 

 the loose crumbs of clay. 



Still another plan is to use, instead of ithe rocks, poles of 

 any kind of wood, so they are straight. Lay two 

 poles, say four or five inches in diameter, parallel to each 

 other, leaving a space of six inches between them, and then 

 lay another pole on the centre space so that its edges will 

 rest on the other two, leaving an open space five or six 

 inches in diameter. Then throw stubble, straw, weeds, 

 leaves or cornstalks over the poles, and indeed over the 

 rocks also, and there will be a good ditch without the out- 

 lay of any money. Of course the loose dirt will be thrown 

 over either the rocks or logs. Timber under ground in 

 this way will last a long time. 



But there is still another plan, in case the soil has any 

 descent, and there are few lands in Tennessee without it, 

 and that is by means of a subsoil plow. Let a stout sub- 

 soil plow follow in the furrow of a turning plow, both drawn 

 by stout teams, and send the subsoiler at least two feet deep. 

 Let the furrows run up and down the hill so as to give a 

 regular descent to the water, and the hard pan broken up 

 by the subsoil will carry off all superfluous water after 

 rains in a very short time. This process is so effective that 

 it is pursued in some sections to the exclusion, entirely, of 

 regular draining. It will have to be repeated at inter- 

 vals of three or four years, and there will be but little dis- 

 turbance to the sod, as the subsoiler has only an iron bar for 

 a helve, which raises the surface so slightly it can easily be 

 pressed back with a roller. 



It may be truly said that by this system, properly fol- 

 lowed, we extend our acres perpendicularly instead of later- 

 ally, which is the true theory of cultivation. Man owns 



