82 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
THE MARKET. 
There is no fear about finding a ready market for any 
quantity of willow. It can be used for such u great vari- 
ety of purposes that there is no calculating the amount 
that will be used in this country when it can be obtained, 
Ido not expect that it will always command the prtce it 
does, neither ought it do so. Now that it can be peeled 
by machinery, at a cost not exceeding ten dollars per ton 
and the whole cost of raising and peeling a ton not ex- 
ceeding fifteen ortw^enty dollars, it ought not to sell for 
“one hundred and fifty dollars.” At present the price is 
even higher than that and but very few can be obtained at 
any price, and none except in a few of our largest cities. 
But if they could be supplied they would find a hungry 
market in every city and town in America, and the uses 
to which they can be applied are so numerous that the 
amount which would be used if they could be obtained at 
a reasonable rate is absolutely unlimited, • But allowing 
that we may sometime produce enough to more than sup- 
ply our own market, they would readily find a foreign 
market, and we may as well export willows as cotton or 
any other product and we ought to export a great many 
to pay for those we have been importing for the last 
twenty years . — Farmer tf* Visitor. 
HILL SIBS ' BITCHING IN MISSISSIPPI. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — In the Cultivator (ox 
October I notice an article on “Hill Side Ditching — Capt. 
Hardwick’s Plan,” which, With regard to the manner of 
arranging the instrument, is exactly what has been prac- 
ticed in this part of Mississippi for some years. Yet, I 
think, for our lands, (which have a spongy soil six or eight 
inches deep with a clay subsoil entirely impenetrable by 
water — thus causing the soil to become saturated and 
wash off) we have a plan of running our ditches which 
answers a better purpose than the one he suggests. We 
take the level to the highest point on a natural drain and 
start as Capt. H. does, with the short end of the level in 
front and run up hill. Should the hill have two drains, as 
represented in the sketch sent herewith we go to the top 
of the hill, then turning the longer end of the level in 
front we descend to whatever point our instrument carries 
us. We then direct the natural drain to whatever distance 
we think necessary (depending on the nature of the land) 
and lay off another ditch, and so on until we have 
finished. 
After our ditches are laid off we then make them 
our guide rows, and instead of making our rows perfect- 
ly level we plow parallel to our ditches on the under side 
and cause each long row to empty its own water. All the 
short rows empty into the next lower ditch. 
We never give our ditches more fall than will carry off 
the water — say from one to one and a half inches in 
twelve feet. Those ditches which answer best are made 
shallow and wide — say 3 feet wide and 4 inches deep — all 
the dirt having been rolled out with hoes on the lower 
side of the ditch. 
Where the hill sides slope gradually we allow a greater 
distance between the ditches, and our object in these 
ditches is not so much to carry off water as to prevent 
washes. I have seen Capt. H.’s plan tried here, but it 
don’t work so very well and has been altogether discard- 
ed here. 
I herewith send you a rough sketch of the plan alluded 
to that you may understand it more easily ; as I am more 
of a practical farmer than a writer on agriculture. If you 
think you can make anything of this, by any corrections 
you may think fit, which M|i|l benefit your readers, do so ; 
if not, throw it under the table. W. H. R. 
Canion, Miss,, Oct., 1856. 
PLOWS FOR THE SOUTH, &c. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — You may remember 
my writing to you last fall for information- respecting the 
best Plows adapted to light sandy soils. You referred me 
to Dr. Philips, of Mississippi. I wrote him, and his letter 
in reply being very satisfactory and instructive, I enclose it 
for publication, in your valuable journal, hoping its peru- 
sal by your subscribers vi^ill prove valuable to them. 
Respectfully. W. J. Kurtz. 
Laurens, Co., Jam.., 1857. 
Edwards, Miss., Dec. 5, 1856. 
Dr. V/. J. Kurtz — Really and sincerely, sir, do I receive 
with great pleasure such letters as yours of the 16th. This 
day read and this night I reply. I am pleased for two or 
more reasons: — 1st, that my friends deem me that 
worthy ; 2d, when I can be of service. I have in all pro- 
bability, been at more expense and more trouble in test- 
ing plows than any private farmer, North or South, and 
I trust not without advantage to my fellows, to my coun- 
try, and not least to the deserving mechanic. This class 
of our population is not sufficiently prized, they are the 
planter’s strong aid ; without them we could not possibly 
make our labor remunerative, when prices droop. I ad- 
mit, too many of them are governed entirely by the sordid 
motive, but the few who follow their calling from a desire 
to give satisfaction and arrive at excellence should give 
respect even to the indifferent. 
From the character of your land, I would judge that 
you would want a mould board to set at a larger angle to 
the bar than I would, with a little less fullness in the 
breast and a little more curve. Our planters as well as our 
mechanics are too much inclined to have one plow for 
I all work. If you will reflect on this matter, you will at 
once see a stiff soil requires more force to break up ad- 
hesion and less curve to turn, for it only needs to be turn- 
ed very little over a perpendicular, whereas lighter soils 
need comparatively no force to break up adhesion, but 
more to turn further so as to make a clean turn. I would, 
therefore, advise you to apply to T. E. E. Beinley , 
Simpsonville,' Ky., to make a plow for light lands. I re- 
gard him to be the best plow-maker I now know. His 
prices are;— No. li, 2 horse, $8; No. 1, I horse, $6.50 to 
$7; Double Shovels $7, excellent for cultivating ; Culti- 
vator $7, a 3 small shovel implement, very nice for culti- 
vating and stirring the earth. 
I know his prices seem high, but I know tiiey are cheap- 
er than any 5 or 6 plows I ever used. I have used them for 
three crops already, and they will do me for five more, at 
least double that of the cheap plows. Bebides, being steel, 
when worn out the steel is valuable for laying, &c. 
The Mississippi Scraper is hard, very hard to describe, 
I have not the price. They are made of a slab of iron 
about 12 inches wide and some 16 long, and shaped as a 
long diamond ; the side fastened to the plow is 2 inches 
higher than the outer edge, so as when the edge next to 
cotton is on the bed the outer edge hugs the bed or dips 
into it, and when set on level land the handles and chip 
are not perpendicular. The bottom edge is sharp and 
kept so, so as to shave off earth, grass and weeds. They 
are made too light and not long enough. When you are 
ready, I will take great pleasure in having one made for 
you exactly right, by which you can have others made. 
Let me say this: be not discouraged on trial, put to 
the Scraper the most skillful hand and give $I when he 
shaves a bed to stand end to end, leaving about ^ to 1 
inch on each side of the cotton only, not touched. 1 have 
10, perhaps 20 hands that can average 2 to 3 acres, be- 
hind good scraping, in putting cotton to a perfect posi- 
tion for first working — not to a stand, but in bunches. 
