254 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
BLIND DITCHES, OR UNDER GROUND 
Drains. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — No subject can be 
more important to the planter than the one under con- 
sideration, yet there is scarcely one that has received so 
little of his attention. It has been the common practice 
of planters to pursue that suicidal system of wearing out 
their lands without ever a thought of improving them, or 
bringing into cultivation the marsh and pond lands (the 
very best they have), but leaving them a harbor for frogs 
and reptiles as well as “eyesores” to every lover of order 
and neatness that passes that way. Now I wish to in- 
form my brother planters that those worse than waste 
lands can be made, by a small outlay of money or labor, 
the most productive on the plantation. 
Well, how is this to be accomplished 7 Simply by 
Blind Ditches, or Under ' Ground Drains, and as I have 
some experience in the matter, I will give your readers 
what I think the best plan for their construction: 
First. Cut a ditch 4 feet wide and 5 feet deep to take off 
the surface water and to receive that from your blind 
ditches, then cut the ditches you intend to blind 1 foot 
wide and 4 feet deep, emptying them into your main 
ditch. Those ditches should be from 70 to 100 feet apart. 
After your ditches are cut, place in the bottom 3 poles, 
leaving a space of two or three inches between them ; 
then place one on top of the other two to prevent the 
earth from filling up your space. You can then fill up to 
within 12 or 18 inches of the top with brush, finishing 
with earth ; or, if stones are more convenient, fill up with 
them instead of poles ; or, if you are convenient to a saw 
mill and it is most convenient to use slabs, your ditch 
should then be cut 1 foot wide and 3 1-2 deep; then cut 
a 6 inch trench in the centre of the bottom. You then 
have a shoulder 3 inches on each side to hold up your 
slabs ; place them in the ditch, letting them rest on the 
shoulders, and you then have a vent of 6 inches for your 
water ; fill up the ditch with earth and your work is done. 
Forty-five slabs 20 feet long will make 300 yards of 
di ch. This is the cheapest and most expeditious plan, as 
well as most durable (stone excepted.) 
The advantage of blind over open ditches is, that you 
cultivate over them, thus saving the time of turning round, 
cleaning out, &c ; besides, they drain your land as eflTec- 
tually. 
I will say, for the encouragement of any person who 
may wish to try this system of drainage, that, a year or 
two ago, I had some 10 or 15 acres of wet places in my 
field, and by making a few of those blind ditches, I have 
brought them into cultivation, and I have now growing 
on them as fine corn and cotton as you yould wish to see, 
and that without costing me one dollar in money, and the 
time I never missed, as this work was done .at such times 
as hands could not be profitably employed at anything 
else. Yours truly, M. 
South Side, June, 1859. 
[For general directions for Draining, with brush, tiles, 
&c., &c., see an excellent work, entitled “Farm Drain- 
age,” noticed in our July number, page 211. — Eds.] 
“AGRICUIiTURAIi STATESMANSHIP”-AGAIN. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — In behalf of “ Ran- 
dolph,” I present my cordial compliments to Dr. F. H. 
Gordon. 
I do not, and did not, doubt his disinterestedness in the 
matter which he advocates. 
We agree in deprecating the evils of class legislation. 
We differ here. 
We seem to regard the chief evil of class legislation as 
consisting in the fact that it has not held out its hand to 
Agriculture. 
I consider that in accepting the open palm of Govern- 
ment, Agriculture forfeits the only right that class legis- 
lation has left her — the right oiprotest. 
I just as sincerely, therefore, protest against a Con- 
gressman’s sending me a package of seeds (even though 
they do come up in as wild a form as “Marigolds,” and 
do not eventuate in May-Weed or Florida Coffee), as I 
protest against the Government of the United States pay- 
ing a man in Massachusetts a bounty on cod-fish. 
If Mr. Gordon believes this Government to be a “Be- 
nevolent Society,” I can only hope (without wishing 
him any harm) that he may go to Congress. 
If he believes that it is the delegated strength of the 
People to prevent great evils; and so largely impregnated 
with human evil itself that it requires no end of looking 
after — then he agrees with Randolph, and 
His friend in the Cultivator, 
F. 0. Ticknor. 
P. S. — I endorse Mr. Gordon’s statements as to the ex- 
cess of benefit conferred by Government on either occupa- 
tions over Agriculture. I go a great deal farther. I say 
that to fathom the loss to Southern Agriculture resulting 
from that very Legislation, his statement is a mile too 
short. 
But shall we endorse the Robbery by asking of the Rob- 
ber “a great thing”! Shall we not rather take a more 
imposing attitude, and say, with more emphasis than did 
Diogenes, “Get out of our sun-shine!” 
If Agriculture, with the wit and pith of sixty centuries 
in her brain and bones, cannot, when let alone, stand 
alone, there is no need, I submit, for governmental aid to 
emasculate the impotent.* T. 
Torch Hill, Ga , July 1, 1859. 
PIP IN CHICKENS — CURE. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— I give you below a 
remedy for the “Pip” in Chickens, which you can, if you 
see proper, publish for the benefit of “M. R. S.,” who 
made inquiry for a remedy in your May mumber. I have 
known the remedy applied often and almost always suc- 
cessfully. 
It is the tongue that becomes diseased ; hence when 
you discover the chicken has the pip, catch it and take 
from the under side of the tongue the white, hard covering 
which sometimes extends back half way the tongue (this 
can be done with a pin or knife) and then apply a little 
fine salt and black pepper to the part from which you took 
the hard covering or pip, and in most cases the chicken 
will be well in a very short time. 
A. B. C. 
Belmont, Ala., 1859. 
*It is quoted as an instance of the profound political in- 
sight of Artaxerxes, King of Persia, that he published the 
aphorism that taxation rests ultimately on Agricul- 
ture.” 
The wit of the discovery is less wonderful than the 
royal integrity that told of it ; and both are eclipsed by 
the singular inference that he draws from it ; that, there- 
fore, the taxer ought to “foster” the taxee ! Ought, in- 
deed, not exactly to keep his hands out of ye farmer’s 
pockets, but to leave him a little by way of nest-egg ; or 
even to “foster” him in a severe case, by paying him a 
little backi Which, I take it, is the sum and substance of 
Governmental aid to Agriculture. 
The “old man” must ride. If he rides easy and don’t 
spur, it is all we ask, and more than we expect. 
As for Agricultural Conventions, are they not in perma- 
nent session, all the yeai round, and all the world over! 
Have they not their organs, too! Speak for us. Cultiva- 
tor ! 
