174 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
SWEET POTATOES-LEACHED ASHES. 
Fditors Southern Cultivator — It is quite refreshing 
to hfid an article in your paper of April on Potato Culture, 
over the signature of “J. Hair,” of Livingston, Ala. Ij 
presume Air. H. cultivates arable land from his suggestions [ 
and success in raising the esculent bulb after the formula 
of Air. J. M. PIatciier. Persons writing, should give the 
quality of land on which the e:xperiment is made, for we 
all know (not all either) that what would suit a piece of 
loam would, in ail probability, require different tactics on 
arable land. Now, the loam would admit of free access 
of air and give readily to the pressure of the bulb, while 
the arable land will do neither, to any great extent, and 
this again will be owing to the season : for during rainy 
weather or after hard showers, we find our arable soil 
needs plowing or stirring to give porosity and prevent 
baking, and also to render it a non-conductor to prevent its 
becoming too dry. In regard to potato culture for arable 
soils, and it will, no doubt, suit all kinds, but the old way 
of croppins: is good enough, i. c., make ridges and plant 
ihe slips or drawing from the potato. 
And again, in the same number, I see Dr. Lek takes 
xhe man of Leached Ashes “to taw.” Now, any sensible 
man would or ought to know that ashes, in their virgin 
purity, would be more valuable as a fertilizer than they 
vzould be after the potash has been lixivated from them. 
This will refer directly to the Sweet Potato, that being a 
potash plant. Now, if the Dr. would rap a few more of 
them over the knuckles a little oftener (for he is the man 
to do it, having his chemistry so fully committed to mem- 
ory as to give him ample means in that line, without 
much reference to books) we would have more reliable 
reading matter, and, in all probability, be the saving of 
considerable to some quick-going individuals who jump 
at every hobby that makes its appearance in agricultural 
journals. Truly, &c., NLiPPER. 
Cohi'nibus, Miss., 1856. 
THE LEVELING OF LAND. 
Tee planters who read this journal must have been a little 
surprised at the earnestness with which Col. Cannon 
urges the necessity of not allowing an inclination of sur- 
face in tilled land, equal “to a fraction of an inch in a 
mile.” The writer regards such leveling as impracticable, 
and, therefore, not to be commended, except in particular 
eases. Nor do we believe it as important, either to pre- 
vent washing or preserve fertility, as Col. C. evidently 
Xhinks it is from his remarks, which may be found in the 
.April number of the Cultivator, page 107. He says : 
“The little fall to which I allude, and which is most usual- 
ly given by those who insist upon the least fall, is one 
inch to every twelve feet. To demonstrate beyond ail 
cavil, the absurdity of such a practice as this, it is only 
necessary to compare this fall with that of the streams 
which receive the water freighted with the rich stealage 
from your soils, after it leaves your lands. A fall of one 
Inch to twelve feet, gives a fall of thirty- six feet and eight 
inches to the mile. Over such a fall a thousand rills 
course along your cotton beds, at a speed, compared with 
which the current of the mighty Alississippi would pre- 
sent the appearance of eddy water,” 
The author of the above appears to overlook the impor- 
tant fact that, water running in “ a thousand rills along 
cotton beds” has a thousand times more friction to over- 
come, and, consequently retard its progress, than water 
flowing in “the mighty Mississippi.” Land which is so 
near level as to have an inclination of only one foot in one 
hundred and forty-four feet, will suffer little, or no injury 
from surface washing, unless it receives a flood of w'ater 
from a more inclined and steeper surface adjoining it. 
! When a steep side hill pours its flood of water violently 
j upon a level surface below, the momentum often damages, 
by making deep gullies, the bottom land through which 
the stream passes. 
But water that has no greater velocity than it acquires 
after overcoming the friction at the bottom and sides of a 
common ditch, with a fall of one yard in 144, instead of 
removing earth when it reaches a level surface, immedi- 
ately begins to deposit the mud and final sand it may 
have brought with it. 
Hydraulics, hydrostatics, and agricultural engineering 
generally, should be carefully studied by every gentle- 
man wt^ aims to be a scientific farmer. We entertain a 
profound regard for such intelligent and enterprising plant- 
ers as Col. Cannon and “Southron;” and if we criticise 
their professional opinions, it is with reluctance and due 
respect, and from no other motive than a sense of duty to 
our numerous readers. 
To grade the track of a railroad, not to a perfect level, 
but to no greater descent and ascent than 37 feet in a mile^ 
often costs from five to fifceen thousand dollars. What, 
then, will it cost to grade, not a narrow road, but 100 
acres of hill and valley equally divided, where the hill is 
on an average of only 60 feet above the low ground 1 In 
such a case, the low land must be filled up 30 leet ; and the 
high ground dug down the same number of feet, and the 
earth transported an average distance equal to that from 
the centre of one fifty acre field to an adjoining one. Now, 
the earth on a single acre to the depth of one inch weighs, 
on an average, 100 tons. This gives thirty-six thousand 
tons of earth to one acre, if excavated to the depth of 
thirty feet, to be in some way carried from the hill to fill 
up the valley. We will not attempt to estimate the cost 
of making two acres, one on the hill and the other in the 
dale, on a level, for farming purposes. Suffice it to say, 
that the thing is impracticable ; nor is it really necessary 
to level land in this manner. 
We admit the fact that some soils have a physical con- 
stitution that enables them to imbibe, when level, all the 
water that falls in rains, and not be too wet for tillage, 
as compared with unleveled land. The proportion of such 
light pervious soils, as compared with the whole under- 
cultivation, is small; while the exhaustion of vegetable 
mould, and long plowing tend to harden and make im- 
pervious, not only level grounds, but all arated fields. 
Hence, we see wheat fields and cotton fields thrown up 
into narrow lands or beds, with something like a shallow 
ditch on each side, to remove surface water from growing 
plants which stand on a level, or nearly level suface. In- 
deed, we could name plantations on the Savannah river, 
beside those of Mr. William Eve and Gov, Hammond, 
which have miles of open ditches to carry off that excess 
of surface water which the land cannot absorb without 
nearly destroying all valuable crops. An intimate ac- 
