304 
SOUTHEEN CULTIVATOE. 
It is getting to be quite fashionable for young men in 
modern times, to follow no useful occupation whatever if 
their fathers are worth a few “kinky heads,” and this is one 
reason why our country is being filled up with proud, 
vain, light-headed drones, full of vanity, indolence, aris- 
tocracy and foppishness. This is the reason why so many 
valuable estates are so unscrupulously squandered ; 370ung 
men thus raised do not know the value of property, or the 
hard toil requisite to accumulate it; they do not know the 
worth of water “till the well is dry,” hence we find them 
ruinously extravagant and superlatively trifling in respect 
ready to countenance every vice and quaff from every 
polluted fuuntain. They have been raised wrong, and to 
make a change would be comniune honnin. If they had 
been made thoroughly acquainted with the plow handle, 
maul and wedge, and had travelled more in “the good old 
way their fathers trod,” they would now be useful and 
sterling members of society, instead of mere popinjays ! 
I have but briefly discussed one branch of the subject, 
but in order that an education be perfect, it must judicious- 
ly blend the three togther — physical, moral and inlellec- 
tual. James H. Oliphant, 
Cedar Grove, Jefferson Co., Ga., 1856. 
HILL SIDE DITCHIN&---CAPI. HAHDWICX’S PLAN. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— -Some time since, I 
requested you, if you had Capt. R. S. Hardwick’s letters 
on Guard Ditches and Horizontal Culture, you would 
greatly oblige many of your readers by republishing it. 
With others that have practiced it just in my vicinity, I 
unhesitatingly pronounce it superior to any treatise I have 
ever seen upon the subject. By pursuing it, I am at this 
time cultivating land and reaping a good return for labor 
bestowed, that I before considered worthless. You will 
doubtless conclude from the worn and soiled appearance 
of the enclosed pages that its lessons have been imbibed 
by many. Our lands are of a very fine loamy soil, entire- 
ly free from gravel, and commence when cultivated in 
ordinary way with straight rows, to wash the hrst crop, 
and in a few years where the land is at all broken is unfit to 
cultivate, and at this time vast tracts of land in our country 
are beingleftas sterile wastes, that would have been worth 
as much as it originally was had it been cultivated upon 
Mr. Hardwick’s system. 
I do earnestly hope you may find it convenient to re- 
publish these letters, and I am convinced that our farmers 
by practicing upon them will become settled and satisfied 
with their homes and content to beautify and improve 
ihem. I am certain of one thing, that no one can feel per- 
manent at a place that is year after year washing into 
yawning gullies and bare sterile wastes. I do feel that I am 
under lasting obligations to Capt. H., for until I was put 
in possession of his communications I had well nigh be- 
come disgusted with my success as a practical farmer. 
Wishing you success in your noble enterprise, I am, 
Dear Sirs, yours Soc., D. E. Palmer, 
Three Point Place, Tenn., 185C. 
HILL SIDE DITCHING, BY CAPT. HAKDWICK. 
By the urgent request of many of qur subscribers, 
(says the ■Milledgevilie Recorder) we re-publish in this 
number of the Supplement, the article of Capt. Hardwick, 
on Hill Side Ditching, v/hich was written for and original- 
ly published in our agricultural sheet. 
The country owes a large debt of thanks to Mr. Hard- 
wick, for the improvement of its lands, which has been 
induced and so much aided by his practical and success- 
ful method, as pointed out in the article before us. We 
have in our possession ample testimonials in this regard. 
And we feel it to be our duty to that gentleman, and one 
which we perform most cordially, favored as we were by 
being made the medium of its communication to the pub- 
lic, not only thus publicly to express our obligations to 
him for his useful labors in behalf of the greatinterest of the 
country, but likewise to publish at least one of the many 
manifestations of public gratitude, on the part of those 
who have tested and been benefited by those labors. And 
we select the testimony on this behalf of an agriculturist, 
who is widely known as one of the best farmers and plant- 
ers in this or any other country ; one who is considered 
in the large sphere of his acquaintance as a specimen 
planter, whose example if followed will assuredly be bene- 
ficial. Without further comment we publish below the 
letter on this subject from Mr. Lawson of Houston county 
although not written for the public eye, than whose testi- 
mony on the subject of all relating to successful agricul- 
ture, there is none superior. Who is public-spirited 
enough to .second the proposition of Mr. Lawson I 
Houston Co., April 25th, 1851. 
Messsrs. Grieve Orme — I consider R. S, Hardwick’s 
letters on grade ditches and horizontal plowing, decidedly 
superior to anything 1 have seen on that subject. Grade 
ditches and horizontal plowing, I regard as the greatest 
improvement of the age, about which I know anything. 
Mr. Hardwick is esteemed a public benefactor, and worthy 
of a monument. But I would a little rather show my faith 
by my works, while he is living, than after he is dead. It 
is very rare that a public benefactor is rewarded. I am 
willing to be one of a company of a hundred or of five 
hundred, who will give a hundred dollar bill each, to 
raise a fund subject to his order. My farm is worth 
double, yes treble, what it was, and I am debtor to Mr. 
Hardwick for it, I did not think of saying any such thing 
when I took up my pen. But I do look on Mr. Hard- 
wick as a public benefactor and think he should be re- 
warded. My object in writing you is to request of you 
two dozen copies of Hardwick’s letters on grade ditches 
and horizontal plowing. Send them by mail to Hawkins- 
ville. Yours truly, H, Lawson. 
To Augustus Howard, Esq., Dear Sir — Before the re- 
ceipt of your letter of the 19th May, I had promised the 
editors of the Recorder, at their special request, an article 
for the July supplement on the subject of graded hill side 
ditches, and the horizontal method of culture. From their 
letter requesting an article on that subject, it is obvious 
that I was selected because of the article over my signa- 
ture published in the April supplement, finding fault with 
many of the systems now practiced by farmers on that 
subject— alleging that various inquiries would be made of 
them, convinced by that article which, it appears, was the 
cause of your inquiries being made. Being under the 
promise that I was to the Editors, and finding your letter 
asking information of the same sort, I determined to have 
your letter published and answer it through the same 
medium. By this course I could comply with your re- 
quest and fulfil my engagement with them at the same 
cost of labor that it would take to answer one. To reply 
to your inquiries fully in one communication, would re- 
quire more space than the Editors could well spare in one 
number; therefore, I will continue my letters to you 
monthly until I have fully answered all your interroga- 
tories. 
Thus, sir, you have my reason for the publication of 
your letter without your consent, which I hope will be a 
satisfactory apology on my part for the liberty taken. 
