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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



impediment to ploughing around the hill, which is 

 the general practice in Mr. Selden's neighborhood. 

 The omitting to plough thus, when breaking up the 

 field, would lose one of the most convenient means 

 for keeping the ditches in order. It is only neces- 

 sary to raise the point of the plough when it is 

 cutting across or along a bank, so as to go shallow, 

 and to cut up the weeds and briers, without dis- 

 turbing the foundation of the bank. After being 

 thus ploughed, the running the plough for one or 

 two furrows along and in the bottom of the ditch, 

 to loosen the earth and break the roots of anything 

 that has grown therein, will leave the ground ready 

 for scraping out the ditches with hoes, and put the 

 ditches and banks in order. They will rarely fail 

 to answer a good purpose for the succeeding rota- 

 tion of crops, without being liable to fill up or 

 break, if managed as directed. 



Mr. S. said it had been argued that the washing 

 away of the finer and more fertile parts of the soil 

 (which was more or less done on all hilly lands.) 

 was not a loss, as what was thus removed from the 

 upper part was deposited at the foot of the hill. 

 In answer, he would say, that if- there had been no 

 such washing, the land at or near the top of the 

 slopes would have continued as fertile as at the 

 foot. He thinks more injury is done to the flat 

 lands lying under hills, by there being deposited 

 there barren sand and clay washed from the bot- 

 toms of gullies and other denuded and barren sub- 

 soil on the hill-sides above, than the benefit received 

 from the muddy water bringing and depositing the 

 richest and finest parts of the soil. 



He could not say how far the objection applied 

 to hill-side ditches making the small streams more 

 liable to overflow. But as the water from rains 

 would pass along greater distances, and at less speed, 

 before reaching the streams below, he thought this 

 objection could not apply to a proper and judicious 

 system. 



It had been stated that graduated ditches would 

 not answer for steep slopes. He thought there were 

 very few hill-sides in that neighborhood so steep as 

 to forbid their use. He had these ditches on two 

 hills, as steep as any in the neighborhood, and it 

 was known that the plan answered well there. It 

 is certainly true, that a steep hill-side will require 

 the ditches to be more frequent, or nearer together, 

 than more gentle slopes. And thus it may be, that 

 on a very steep slope, the ditches and their banks 

 might occupy a large proportion of the whole sur- 

 face at that place, and have cost more labor for 

 their construction and preservation than such par- 

 ticular spot would be worth for cultivation. But 

 this did not prevent such ditches being effective for 

 such steeper ground, or the work there being made 

 to suit with and in aid of the general plan for the 

 whole field. 



Mr. Edmund Ruffin, of Hanover, said that it had 

 been intimated in this discussion, and he knew it 

 was a common opinion of many residents of this 

 upper country, that the lands of the tide water re- 

 gion were so nearly level that the washing of hill- 

 sides was there but a small evil. It is true; that 

 much of the land near the sea-coast is very level 

 and low. But in the higher half of this region, 

 lying nearer to the falls of the rivers, the high 

 lands bordering the rivers and their small tiibutary 

 streams, have many hill-sides much steeper than 

 any of this upper country ; and for miles back from 

 the rivers, many of the farms are as hilly as in this 

 neighborhood, and as much need care to prevent 

 destructive washing away of the soil, as any lands 



whatever. Still, he did not believe that this plan 

 for prevention, which had undoubtedly been so be- 

 neficial hereabout, could be advantageously adopted 

 (or but in few cases of peculiar shape of surface) 

 on the high and hilly lands of tide water. For- 

 merly, as Editor of the Farmers' Register, and in 

 the first volumes of that work especially, he had 

 done much to gather and diffuse information on 

 this subject. He believes that to his thus eliciting 

 information, especially from the pens of Messrs. 

 James C. Bruce of Halifax, Richard G. Gaines of 

 Charlotte, and N. F. Cabell of Nelson, the agricul- 

 tural public is indebted for the first publication 

 and diffusion of instruction on this important sub- 

 ject. But his own practical experience is so limited, 

 that it would not be worth mentioning, except that 

 the statement is due to candor, and to this occasion. 

 On the high and hilly farm in Prince George county, 

 formerly owned by Mr. R., and then, as now, under 

 the direction of the present proprietor, Edmund 

 Ruffin, Jr., a field was laid off, and guard-furrows 

 made, carefully and well, according to the then re- 

 ceived directions and best lights. But, in obedience 

 to the views then deemed best, the descent given 

 to the furrows was only one inch in twelve feet. 

 According to the later views stated here to-day, 

 this error alone was enough to ensure failure. In 

 addition — the field had been recently ploughed 

 flush, (for corn,) the graduated trenches made sub- 

 sequently, (by ploughs and hoes, as just described 

 by Messrs. Harvie and Old,) and of course the 

 banks were composed, for the most of their height, 

 of* recently moved and loose soil. Of course, there 

 was neither the descent of the furrows necessary 

 to conduct rain-floods, nor solidity of banks to re- 

 sist their washing through. It was no wonder, that 

 the washing of the field was made the worse, by 

 this attempt to guard against it. In consequence, 

 as soon as possible, the furrows were filled up, and 

 the effort has not been renewed. But besides these 

 particular defects, (of too little fall in the furrows, 

 and of the newness and softness of the banks, ope- 

 rating in this case,) there are natural features of the 

 hilly surfaces of the tide water lands very different 

 from this middle region, and which would be great 

 obstructions to the general use or efficacy of hill- 

 side ditching. Here, the hill-sides, though high; 

 are not often very steep, and are long and regular, 

 or without frequent variations of direction. Those 

 below the falls vary frequently in their rate of slope, 

 and in the direction of the curves, which, also, are 

 often short and abrupt. Thus, any graded line, 

 marked for a hill-side ditch, would necessarily be 

 very crooked, and cross many of both projecting 

 and receding curves. The soil also, usually, and 

 sometimes the sub-soil, is sandy; and the heavy 

 sand washed across the intervals of tilled land, into 

 the graded ditches, by rain-floods, would soon make 

 obstructions, cause the water to over-top and break 

 across the adjoining bank, which, because of its 

 loose, sandy texture, would be totally unfit to resist 

 being washed through and down to its foundation. 



Very lately, when in South Carolina, he had con- 

 versed on this subject with some intelligent planters 

 of the upper part of that Stat<* and of middle 

 Georgia, in reference to scenes wnich he had pre- 

 viously seen. Edward Palmer, Esq. of Fairfield 

 District, South Carolina, and the Hon. William C. 

 Dawson of Greensborough, Georgia, and others, 

 stated that the use of guard- trenches, on their hilly 

 lands, had been found an improvement of inestima- 

 ble value. This practice in Georgia has been found, 

 wherever used, to be the greatest possible safeguard 



