294 Illinois State Dairymen's Association. 



out doing much washing. The water is kept on the terrace by an 

 embankment on the lower edge. Hillside ditches are sometimes 

 used to prevent washing. A ditch is run across the slope, with a 

 fall sufficient to carry the water off without doing any damage. A 

 number of these are made upon the slope, each one carrying off 

 its share of surplus water. The distance between the ditches is 

 determined by the slope, the steeper the slop the closer the ditches. 

 Sometimes the hillside ditch and terrace are combined, the ditch 

 being placed at the edge of the terrace. 



If cover crops, organic matter, and deep contour plowing are 

 used to the best advantage, probably there will be no need of ter- 

 races and hillside ditches where the rainfall is no greater than it 

 is in this state. 



I would like to quote in this connection from a letter by Pro- 

 fessor Massey, for many years at the North Carolina Experiment 

 Station. He says: "I attended an institute at Vienna (Johnson 

 county) a few years ago, and was very much surprised to see the 

 farmers plowing straight up and down the hills, and told them 

 that this was largely the cause of the washing and was much 

 harder on the team than contour plowing. I have cured old gullies 

 in steep Virginia hills merely by deep subsoiling, level cultivation 

 to prevent making dams, winter cover crops and a rotation that 

 brings humus making crops on the land frequently. The one- 

 horse plow and shallow plowing is responsible for the gullies in 

 the south and up and down hill plowing in southern Illinois." 



Methods of Preventing Gullying. 



No form of washing will utterly ruin land more quickly than 

 gullying. The owner of very rolling or hilly land must be on the 

 lookout constantly for incipient gullies, and must use every means 

 for preventing their enlargement. The fact that slopes are not 

 uniform allows the water to accumulate in draws, thus increas- 

 ing its volume and velocity and multiplying its washing power 

 many times. Unless some means are taken to prevent it, the water 

 soon grinds out a formidable gully. 



It is a somewhat common practice to scatter straw in these 

 draws in the fall or to build straw dams across them at frequent 

 intervals. These serve to check the velocity of the water and 

 catch the sediment, but frequently the run-off is so great that the 

 straw is carried down the draw and lodges at the base. These 



