SOUTHERN C ULTIVATOR. 
215 
representing the various branches of industry, has already 
been appointed to co-operate with the officers of the 
ciety, in perfecting arrangements for the Exhibition : and 
§15,000 have been guaranteed to meet expenses. TJiis 
material aid, coupled with the excellence of the selected 
location, and the large amount of Premiums offered, in- 
duces the expectation that the Exhibition of 185G will be 
superior to any of its predecessors. 
Favorable arrangements for the transportation of Stock 
and other articles, will he made with the various lailroads. 
The List of Entries, the Awgi’ds of Premiums, and the 
Proceedings will be published in the Journal of the Society 
for 1856. 
The Premium List, with the Regulations and Programme 
of the Exhibition, will be furnished on application to jMr. 
John iMcGowan, Assistant Secretary of the United States 
Agricultural Society, 160 Chestnut street, (Rooms of the 
Philadelphia Agricultural Society) or by addressing the 
Secretary, at Boston. 
^Marshal P. Wilder, President. 
William S. Klvg, Secretary, 
June 1st, 1856. 
LEVELING LAND— HILL SIDE DITCHES, ETC. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — •‘Level your land, and 
you may thus discard your hill side ditches and save the 
space devoted to them and the labor of making and keep- 
ing them open.-’ 
The above is an extract from Col. Cannon's Address, as 
quoted by “Southron,” in the April number of your jour- 
nal. And as I have, for several years past, devoted much 
time to the study and inoxtice of hill side ditching and 
horizontalizing, I hope it may not be thought presumptu- 
ous in me slightly to differ with Col. C. and “Southron” 
on the subject. It is a matter of grave importance to 
every planter South, and should be understood thorough- 
ly. As to the utility and absolute necessity of hill side 
ditching, there has, so far as I know, been but one opinion, 
up to the time ofCol. Cannon’s address. And there should 
be but one still; and with the planters of the Cotton-grow- 
ing regions, there is, or cannot be but one opinion, and 
that is, without it the country is ruined. ■. 
Col. Cannon, I have no doubt, has saved his plantation 
in the stiff land of Tennessee, where they' grow corn, ! 
clover, grass, wheat, &c., where they have, from absolute 
necessity, a regular sy'stem of rotation of crops, but that 
does not prove that the planters on the light lands of 
^Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina can, 
hy hxsrnodiis ope-randis'dve ihe'ivs. But on the contrary', 
theyMiave tried “leveling,” to their satisfaction ; and hav- 
ing failed, they were forced to adopt a sy^stem of hill side 
ditching, and now, after they have brought that sy'stem 
something near perfection, and have become inspired 
with the hope that their gullied hills may be saved and | 
brought back to their original fertilitility'', they* are told by 
two gentlemen in the mountains that they had as well 
wipeout those “sickly lines” running across their hill 
sides, and adopt the leveling system which they have tried, 
failed and abandoned. 
That some fields may be saved by leveling and subsoil- 
ing I am free to admit, but from past experience I deny 
most positively and emphatically that cotton planters can 
with any degree of propriety, discard hill side ditching 
eiitirely. In a country where the wild woods are wash- 
ed into gullies, and where the soil melts before the thun- 
der showers as snow before the noon day sun, it requires 
something more than leveling to save the hills. Nothing 
less than ditching and leveling will do it, and some fields 
.must be subsoiled into the bargain. If I had either to de- 
pend upon subsoiling or leveling to save land, I would 
prefer siibsoiling. I was, a short time since, on the plan- 
tation ofMr. J. E. W. Cook, of Cayuga, Miss., and he 
j showed me a field that had been saved from washing by 
j subsoiling and horizontalizing by the eye. That field 
had been horizontalized before it was subsoiled, but not 
! saved ; therefore suhsoiling did the work, and conse- 
I quently is more reliable than leveling without subsoiling, 
j That field was subsoiled three years ago, and since then 
he has, on another field, located and constructed several hill 
side ditches; convinced of the fact, as he said, that sub 
soiling and horizontalizing alone will not save every field. 
Mr. Cook is a reader of the Southern Cultivator, and 
an intelligent planter, and if I have not stated the case as 
it is, it is my request that he speak out. 
“Southron” says that a single furrow of the plow, run 
on a perfect level is sufficient to hold the water of the 
heaviest rain. Now, that sentence, to say the least ofk 
I does not make the matter as “plain as the nose on a man’s 
j face.” His language might convey the idea to some that 
I he wished to make us believe that a single furrow in the 
field would hold all the vveter that fell upon it — that 
is the field. But we will grant that he means to say 
that a furrow of the plow, run on a level, will hold the 
water of the heaviest rain that falls immediately upon it. 
But that does not begin to prove that it would hold the 
water of two rains, nor of a week’s rain. Suppose your 
I furrow should be fall of water, and then there should 
i come two more heavy rains in the same day, such as we 
j have had this spring, what would you do with the -water? 
I Of course, you could do nothing with it, but it would do 
I something for you and no mistake. Then if you had hill 
j side ditches, well located and constructed, to catch the 
' surplus water and convey it out of the field before it had 
accumulated enough to wash, no harm would be done to 
your fields. 
In conclusion, permit me to say that I had intended to 
give you my system of hill side ditching and horizontaliz- 
ing, and to request “Southron” if he saw any defect in 
it, to point it out, and I should be obliged; but the length 
of my communication and the hour of the night admon- 
ishes me to close. But I intend to do so soon. For the 
present, good night. Yours, &c,, 
G. D. Harmon. 
Utica, Miss., May, 1856, 
[We shall be pleased to receive your system, in detail, 
for publication. — Eds, So. Cult.] 
The Hiccup, — We have often heard that people can 
find no remedy for that annoying complaint, the hiccup 
or hiccough. I may mention that some time ago I had 
occasion to call at a Highland shooting-lodge, and on 
entering the kitchen, where two English sportsmen were 
sitting, I happened to be attacked by a fit of hiccup, and 
must have cut rather an awkward figure. I observed one 
of the sportsmen take a piece of gray paper from his 
pocket, and after lighting and blowing it out, he started 
up, and, without saying a word, held the fumes of it op- 
posite my mouth and nostrills, I started, to be sure, but 
was quite astonished to find myself immediately cured, 
and I have since seen it frequently tried on others, and it 
always proved a “never failing remedyu” — Anon. 
The Pen. — In the hand that knows how to use it, it is 
the most powerful weapon known. As the tongue of the 
absent, how cheering! When the golden tints of virtue 
guide it, how beautiful ! When self-respect gives it a new 
vigor, how pleasing! When honor directs it, how re- 
spected! When wit sharpens it, how fatal! When scur- 
ility wields it, how contemptible ! “ Tis the weapon of 
the soul.” 
