SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
241 
H0IIIZ02TTAL TILLAGE AND GUAKD-DRAINS, OE 
HILL-SIDE DITCHES. 
[Concluded from our July nuniher^ page 211,J 
The guard drains or side-hill ditches should be first laid 
off ; and afterwards the horizontal rows. 
If the land is worn, gind already much cut up with wash- 
es, the difficulty of determining the position of the ditches, 
and the labor of making them are infinitely greater than 
when the work is done the second year after clearing. 
The outlet of the intended ditch should, as a general 
thing, be the place of beginning ; its locality must be de- 
termined by the facilities for letting off the accumulatd 
waters with the least injury to the land — some deep hol- 
low or large gully which has got beyond the possibility of 
being filled up; or some sharp ridge, or long slope cover- 
ed with cane or Bermuda grass. It is seldom possible to 
select any location where more or less dauiage will not 
be done ; but how much better it is that such damage 
should be at some point of one’s own selecting, than that 
if should be distributed over the fields at a hundred points 1 
It is frequently possible to empty a number of hill-side 
ditches down some sharp ridgej along which a shallow 
drain is made as a conductor; and which being directed, 
at the foot, into the bed of some bayou will utimately fill 
It up, at the same time cutting down the sharp ridge, so 
that it may be plowed over. 
The fall to be given varies with the nature of the 
ground. The more crooked the ditch, the greater the fall. 
A tolerably straight one or where the turns are long and 
sweeping, will not require more than an inch and a half 
in ten feet. One which winds along a series of ridges, 
the turns being short and frequent, must have two inches 
in ten feet. The fiill must not be increased on account of 
the length of the ditch, but its. width must be greater. 
When at all avoidable, let no ditch :exceed two hundred 
yards in length. Better begin in the middle of the field, 
and let the water run both vrays. Wherever a deep gully 
occurs, let the ditch fall from it each way when practi- 
cable.; the difficulties of carrying it across such a place 
and rendering it secure, are thus greatly lessened. If the 
water must run in one direction, more than two hundred 
yards, the width of the ditch, and, of course, its capacity, 
must be gradually increased. The greater depth of water 
gives greater fall, and in consequence greater rapidity of 
current and liability to wash. Hence it is 'better to in- 
crease the width than the dejDthof the ditch, with increased 
length. 
According to our opiniop, the Irorizontal distance from 
ditch to ditch, to insure almost entire exemption from 
washing, is about forty yards. The course we shoul’d ad- 
vise is, to run a ditch just above where the first washed 
begin to form ; going over as much of tlie plantation as 
possible, in this way, 'one season. Then notice .where 
washes begin to form below, and there run another -series 
the next season. At the foot of the hill another ditch 
should always be made tq protect tl^ bottoms, which are 
valuable to the hill pfanler, though that value is very 
greatly lessened without such protectioq. When flooded 
by the water falling on the hills, it becomes completely ■ 
saturated apd the crop destroyed or seriously injured. 
The guard dr^i.n prevents this, by catching th,e water and 
carrying it into the creek or bayou. 
Having fix^d upon the location of the hill side ditch 
and upon its outlet, let an assistant, generally an ihtelli- 
gent negro, take the “sight-staff,” and, after raising the 
sight board to the height of, say, six feet, rest the lower 
end upon the ground at the point selected for the outlet. 
Then place your level in such position, as that you take 
in, at a glance, when sighting over the field of the instru- 
ment, the entire line of the intended ditch; whilst, at 
the same li.me, you sight at the black line of the'sight- 
board. There you remain, your assistant, before he re- 
moves the staff, sliding the sight-board down to the six 
inch mark upon the staff. He then steps forward in the 
direction indicated by your hand, ten steps of about a 
yard each, there raises the staff to the perpendicular; 
placing it up or down hill, as you may indicate, until 
the sight-board is again in the range of your vision over 
the table of the level; where the staff stood he sticks 
down a twig or makes a chop wnth a hoe. And thus 
he goes on as far as you can clearly distinguish the 
sight on the staff. When you can no longer do so dis- 
tinctly, from distance or position, move your level, let 
your assistant raise the sight-board on the staff, and go on 
as belore. 
The ditch being marked out, take a steady running two- 
horse plow, and throw a heavy furrow down hill, the en- 
tire length of the ditch. This done, return to the place of 
beginning, tearing up the bottom of the furrow just made, 
and throw another furrow down hill until the site of the 
ditch is broken up deeply, to the width of four furrows. 
The hoe-hands then follow and draw out the loose earth, 
so as to form a continuous, neat bank all along the lower 
side. As a bank rather than a ditch is the object aimed 
at, make ffie latter no deeper than is necessary to form a 
substantial bank 
The work being done it is only necessary to add, that 
the ditch must be kept as clear of grass, &c., as a row of 
cotton. Cotton or corn may be grown on the lower part 
of the bank, but cultivated solely with the hoe. At least 
once a year, a shallow furrow or two may be cast along 
the bottom of the ditch, drawing the loose earth out, at 
same tinie, with the hoe. Breaks must be guar’ded against; 
which is easily done by holding the driver responsible, 
the planter or overseer keeping a look-out at the* same 
time. — Affleck's Rural Almanac. 
ICE HODSES FOE PLANTEES. 
The following from the Louisville Journal, will proba- 
bly furnish a satifactory answer to “ A Subscriber,” of 
Jefferson County, Ga., whose^ inquiry appeared in our 
July No., page 210 : 
Gentlemen : I have an ice-house built above ground 
upon the following plan, I find it will not keep ice, and 
would be glad if you or some one of the readers of our 
Journal would inform me in what mine is lacking that 
prevents it from answering the purpose : 
My house is about 15 feet square, 8 or 9 feet high ; two 
frames 13 inches apart, and filled in with charcoal, well 
pounded in. I put about 11 inches of saw-dust in the 
bottom, some wheat straw on that, filled it with ice, and 
covered over with straw and saw-dust. I also have an 
upper floor covered over with charcoal, 9 or 10 inches 
deep, and a trap-door cut in the floor for putting the ice in 
and .getting it out. 
Could I get information so as to enable me to make 
mine answer the purpose, it would oblige yours, respect- 
fully, . ■ E. 
Lut fojjeltc, Kf/. 
So far as* our correspondent has dfescribed the plan of 
his house, we can see no cause for the loss of his ice, but 
suspect the difficulty is either in the want of thorough 
drainage, or that the air is not entirely excluded at the bot- 
tom. The air in contact with the ice in the house becomes 
condensed and will escape through any opening at the 
bottom, and its place will constantly be supplied with the 
lighter warm air from without, and thus the ice will be 
liable to rapid waste. Ice well packed in a house proper- 
ly constructed melts on the surface of the mass only ; 
therefore the larger the mass of ice is the less will be the 
proportion of waste, and for the same reason a cube is the 
most perfect form in which ice can be packed to prevent 
