SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
13 
no problem more si'isceptible of a clear and satisfactory 
demonstration. I have around me and everywhere about 
me, the daily, the hourly, the visible, tangible evidence 
before my eyes at every turn on my plantation, and 1 no 
longer enact the part of a doubting “Thomas.” Have I 
not a right to be earnest tlien '? 
Xo ghastly gullies glare upon me— no sicldy hues, the 
,sad premonitors of premature decay, arrest my sympa- 
thetic vision in any of my arable land. Sometimes, 1 see 
a “small break,” easily remedied, and, invariably, as soon 
asthelevel is applied a fall is detected; frequently of 
only a few feet in length, but always a fill. 
This is no fancy sketch. It is too positively, painfully 
true, where the remedy is not applied. And where this is 
done the land is reclaimed, certain. 
I have engaged in tins cause and write for no empty 
and ephemeral eclat. In fact, my frienda so charge and I 
frequently feel that I am too much disposed to avoid what 
is commonly called newspaper notoriety. Ofxtself, it has 
never been otherwise than distasteful to me, and the only 
thing that induces this communication is a sincere and 
unalloyed desire to do good. I have enjoyed the great 
advantages of this system myself and seeing the great 
need of its general adoption, I freely, though feebly, offer 
them to others. 
Allow me here to say, if anything of interest or profit 
enures from what I have said or shall indite in this article 
the public is certainly indebted to an earlier enjoyment of 
it, from my having just read in the November number of 
the CiiUivator, the very clever, condensed and sensible 
communication from your clear-headed Florida correspon- 
dent, signing himself “B. F, W., Jr.” 
I want to know him and request his address in full It 
reached me just at a time when I was at home enjoying a 
short respite from other long continued and arduous agri- 
cultural labors. It comes to me as a most opportune re- 
minder of a determination I formed of writing once more, 
and somewhat more in detail, upon level rows and level 
culture — side hill ditches— the character of the surface 
and soil of our section of country, and especially in 
answer to “ B. C of Texas, to give him my vhx'j 
sim'^X& viodusoperoAidi, in accomplishing the work; thus 
saving the soil from washing away and enabling me to 
manure to advantage every slope, with a positive certainty 
of a retentive and proftabla return. He says he is seeking 
information upon this ^'-vexala question What I have, he 
is certainly welcome to. No truth ever came to me in a 
iiiore unquestioned though, as I think, underrated shape 
than the one he utters when he says : “There is, in my 
humble opinion, at least a four fold greater loss of fertil- 
ity on broken lands, from this cause alone” (washing 
away of the soil) “than from the crops grown upon them.” 
He might have made it forty-fold, without any forfeiture 
of my confidence in his truthfulness. It certainly approxi- 
mates if it does not overreach, that proportion of difference 
here. 
“B. F. W., Jr.,”' says; “Col. Cannon’s remarks on 
leveling hilly lands have excited a good deal of attention, 
and if one may judge from the comments of his brother 
planters, his doct ines are not altogether Comon-icalP I 
believe, .'’sHr as I have seen, I have the weight of author- 
ity, as well as numbers, with me, tUeoreticoUu at least, 
since I have explained, as I did in your August number, 
that it was the rows and not the surface that must be, 
made upon a level. However, be this as it may, I take 
pleasure in saying to “B. F. W.” that I have recently been 
actively officiating as a priest at the agricultural altar, and 
I regard his articled of faith as so decidedly orthodox ; in- 
deed, I may say, as S'> pleasurably and positively CoMon- 
kal, that I will most willingly undertake the easy and 
agreeable task of shriving him, and promise now to im- 
pose a very light penance for wdiatever of a heretical na- 
ture may be found in his creed. 
I hope he will allow me to quote lus last parapraph. 
Speaking of having all the “rows perfectly level,” he 
says; “If, instead of leaving this whole matter in the 
hands of overseers, planters would give to it the thought 
and personal attention which its importance demands, it 
would not be difficult for each one to astertain the plan 
best adapted to Lis particular locality.” 
The single liead of that holy man , John tlie Baptist, had 
to be taken to Herod “in a charger,” and here we have 
this whole — all-important — life and clothing tmestion pre- 
sented in a nut-shell, stamped indelibly with the high 
impress of Truth itself It comes iiome to the honest heart 
of every one, and cannot be added to or taken from with- 
out weakening its force. 
So, also, when he says : “that a long steep hill side, of 
stiff clay, or stony land, avill require different manage- 
ment fi'om a short gentle slope, having a light poroius soil ” 
I am disposed to agree with him, as far as the character of 
the soil is concerned at least, 
I am glad to have the very efficient aid of your 
practical Utica correspondent, Mr. Harimon, so far as the 
“level rows” are in question. That is the main point ; 
the deep corner-stone foundation of this system of security 
to the agriculturist of our particular section, if not of the 
entire South. And I am truly sorry, in his earnest advo- 
cacy of “side hill ditches,” he has felt compelled to locate 
me in the “mountains.” During the past summer I feit 
called upon to define my position politically, and Mr. 
Harmon now forces me to do so geographically , by say- 
ing in eonnection with my “mountain” home : “Col. 
Cannon, I have no doubt, has saved bis plantation in the 
stiff lands of Tennessee, where they grow corn, clover, 
grass, wheat, &c., where they have, from absolute neces- 
sity, a regular rotation of crops ; bnt that does not prove 
that the planters on the light lands of Mississippi, Ala- 
bama, Georgia, and South Carolina can, by his modus 
operandi, (dispensing with hill side ditches) save theirs.” 
I do not live in the “mountains;” and while I try to 
grow a little moi’e corn, wheat, clover and grass than any 
of my very clever neighbors, I must say to him, he has 
not only located me wrong, but he has, unintentionally 
done injustice, not to me, but to my section and soil. I 
live in the important county of Fayette, Tennessee, afew' 
miles west of our county seat, Sommerville, (Melton, pro- 
bably leadiiig to the mistake, being merely the euphoni- 
ous name I gave my plantation,) and cultivate as liglu and 
as loose and as easily washel off soil as any I ever 
saw in any one of the States named. Cotton, that Croesus 
of plants, is king here too, probably to too great an 
extent. And whether to al] of us he has that magic of 
Midas, his despotism is supreme, and his subjects, though 
sometimes murmuring, are always loyal. It is due my 
adopted and prosperous county I should state tliat her 
cottons yearly come in successfu.l competition with the 
best bales in the New Orleans market ; and when well 
handled in the field simnly, and well ginned, have never 
failed to command the very highest price paid during a 
season, “I speak that I do know and testify of things I 
have seen.” 
And I will just whisker, Mr. Harmon, that I nave a 
very clever friend living and cultivating land of the 
same character and soil in Shelby county, Tenn., Col. 
John Pope, who has come twice in competition with 
the world, once in London and once in New York, 
and each time his cotton has triumphantly borne oft’ the 
premiums. No! no! just now I would almost as soon 
think of “taking a tree” as the “mountain” home assigned 
me. So much as to my geographical position. 
Further, as to the character of our soil, surface, 
Our surface, vegetable mold— of a dark g' ey, to a choco- 
