|| HILL-SIDE DITCHING.

BY NICHOLAS T. SORSBY, M_D.,

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HORIZONTAL PLOWING

HILL-SIDE DITCHING.

A
BY NICHOLAS T. SORSBY, M.D.,

OF ALABAMA,

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This Essay was published in pamphlet form, and in the Transactions oF
THE Nortru Carouina State AGricuLturaL Society, and in the Nortu
CaroLina Puianter, in 1858; and in the SourHerN Puanrter, Va., and in
the American Corton PLANTER AND SoIL OF THE SouTH, in 1859.

In order to correct the errors of those issues, and extend its usefulness
further, the author has consented to publish a cheap edition of it. It has
been pronounced the “best Essay ever written on the subject,” but as we
are all liable to err, the author will be thankful to have any error or ambi-
guity of language pointed out to him, so that in a future edition they may

be corrected or explained.
THE PUBLISHERS.

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AN ESSAY

Horyontal Plotoing and Hill-Side Ditching

By NICHOLAS T. SORSBY, M.D.

OF ALABAMA.*

DEDICATION.

This unpretending production is respectfully dedicated to the Farmers and Planters of the State
of North Carolina, as a testimony of his tender regard for them, and love for his native State, by
THE AUTHOR.
FORKLAND, GREEN CouNTY, ALABAMA,
October, 1857.

To THE COMMITTEE ON Essays:

Gentlemen: You perceive from the length of this Essa:-, that
it has cost me a good deal of time and labor to write it. Rest
assured, I would not have written such an Essay for any other
than the Agricultural Society of North Carolina.

I was induced to write it from the interest I feel for the pro-
gress of the Society, and the advancement of the Agriculture of
the State, and as the only and best way I am able to assist them.

If awarded the Premium, the Society is at liberty to publish
all, or any part of it, and as many copies as they desire, but I
beg leave to reserve the copyright ; and as I have no copy of it,
I would be under many obligations to them to return it, when
it has served them in the manner they desire.

By so doing they will much oblige,

Very respectfully,
Their ob’t serv’nt,
N. T. SORSBY.

ForkLanp, Ala., Oct. 13th, 1857.

* A Premium of $50 was awarded by the Society to this Essay.

PREFACE.

This Essay was written in compliance with the demands of
the North Carolina State Agricultural Society.

The writer having felt the need of such information, in days
past, feels he would be uncharitable and ungrateful to withhold,
and not impart his knowledge on the subject, to his brother
farmers.

He has endeavored to serve them i in a feeble manner, in a mat-
ter deeply concerning their pecuniary welfare, and tried to arrange
the subject in a systematic form, and explain the different methods
of the horizontal culture, so that the humblest mind can under-
stand and appreciate them.

Each article is separate and distinct from the Athen and yet
are connected together by the general bearing of the subject.

Should this small effort in behalf of the soil of North Carolina,
meet with the approbation and requisitions of the members of
the Agricultural Society, and receive the careful perusal, study,
and application of its principles to the soil, by the farmers and
planters of the State, the writer shall feel that his labor is not
lost, and his talent not buried in oblivion.

INTER OWUVOCTLON:

It has been but a few years since the subject of this Essay
was brought to the notice of the American Farmer.

It now occupies an important and prominent position among
the scientific operations of the Southern Farm.

It may be considered as a new branch of agricultural science,
founded upon correct and well established principles of the sci-
ences of Engineering and Hydraulics ; and essential to the wel-
fare of the farmer, to the preservation of the soil, and to good
husbandry.

Forced, almost by necessity, and the strong sense of self-
interest and foresight, a few intelligent minds have been brought
to discover the urgent need of reforming the old destructive

{NTRODUCTION. vu

system of plowing in straight rows up and down hills, and of
substituting the better mode of horizontal culture.

The absurdity of the old method is really a subject of aston-
ishment and mortification to those who practice the new
methods. The arable lands of the South have been nearly
exhausted by it and a careless and wasteful culture.

The beauty and simplicity of the principles and practice, as
well as the advantages of the new methods, can only be realized
and brought home to the farmer and planter, by observation,
study, and practice, and when once understood, they will won-
der at their past folly of land-killing, and grieve to know they
practiced it so long, when a different and better system is su
easily learned and pursued.

When we reflect upon the disasters to the soil, occasioned by
the pursuit of the old method, and see the apparent apathy to,
and indifference with which the more perfect and better system
is viewed by some intelligent farmers and planters, at the present
enlightened era and golden age of agricultural science, we feel
alarmed for them, for their lands, and the succeeding genera-
tions.

What a poor inheritance to hand down to an industrious son,
an old dilapidated homestead, with an old worn-out, galled and
gullied farm! Think of it, farmers and planters !

The very sight of decay all around, excites in the mind of the
youne man, disgust, despair, a disposition to abandon the old
place, once so dear to him, and the family, now so much abused,
and seek a newer and better place, richer land, among strangers.
He has no desire to cultivate the worn-out old fields, and per-
haps there is no new land to clear. The old method of plowing
up and down hill, has much to answer for ; it has driven many a
young man to the South-west, and perhaps, eventually, to prison,
or the gallows, who might have been a useful citizen, could he
have remained at home, and made a living.

Whilst the horizontal culéwre and the ridge and furrow sys-
tem are attracting the attention, and being adopted by intelli-
gent planters and farmers, its principles must be studied scien-
tifically and practically, and new discoveries in the art applied,
tested, and settled in the minds of men, or else there will be no
end to the diversity of opinions that may arise, and lead to dis-
cussions that may retard the advancement of the new science.

It would require much time and space to elucidate the differ-
ent methods of the horizontal culture, as fully as some men may
desire, perhaps.

We have endeavored to simplify it, and should some of our
readers not comprehend it perfectly, all that we can say to them
is, study the principles laid down here, and then take the level
and follow the plumb, and it will lead them over more tortuous

vill INTRODUCTION.

and obscure lines than we have penned here, and a few horizon-
tal rows run with patience and care, will teach them more about
it than was ever dreamed of in our philosophy.

Our aim has been, in writing this Essay, to collect together
our ideas on this subject, to compare them with others, and de-
duce from them correct principles, and upon these principles es-
tablish with fidelity, practical rules, and thus accomplish by a
general survey of the subject, and a brief enumeration of the de-
tails founded upon our own experience and observation, all that
we think the State Agricultural Society of North Carolina, re-
quires of the writer.

HISTORY OF HORIZONTAL CULTURE.

We regret to state that we have not been able by a careful
research of all the Agricultural works that we have been able to
examine, in the English and French languages, to find the ori-
gin of this system of culture.

Mr. Thomas Jefferson, who was a close observer of improve-
ments in Agriculture, in a letter dated ‘‘ Monticello, 6th March,
1816,” says, “‘ My son-in-law, Colonel Thomas M. Randolph, is,
perhaps, the best farmer in the State ; and by the introduction
of the Horizontal method of Plowing, instead of straight fur-
rows, has really saved this hilly country. It was running off in
the valleys with every rain, but by this process we scarcely lose
an ounce of soil.

‘“‘ A rafter level traces a horizontal line around the curve of
the hill or valley, at distances of thirty or forty yards, which is
followed by the plow; and by these guide-lines the plowman
finishes the interval by his eyes, throwing the earth into beds of
six feet wide, with large water furrows between them. When more
rain falls than can be instantly absorbed, the horizontal furrows
retain the surplus until it is all soaked up, scarcely a drop ever
reaching the valley below.

“Mr. Randolph has contrived also, for our steepest hill-sides,
a sinple plan which throws the furrows always down hill. It is
made with two wings welded to the same bar, with their planes
at aright angle to each other. The point and the heel of the .
bar are formed into pivots, and the bar becomes an axis, by turn-
ing which, either wing may be laid on the ground, and the other
then standing vertically, acts as a mould-board. The right an-
gle between them, however, is filled with a sloping piece of wood,
leaving only a cutting margin of each wing naked, and aiding in
the oftice of raising the sod gradually, while the declivity of the
hill facilitates its falling over. The change of the pusition of the
share at the end of each furrow is effected in a moment by with-
drawing and-replacing a pin.”

It seems Colonel Randolph introduced this method of plow-
ing into Virginia, previous to 1816, as Mr. Jefferson states he
was acquainted with it two or three years previous to writing
this letter.

10 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

This is the earliest notice that we have seen of the use of the
* horizontal culture, as practiced in the South at the present day.
It would be gratifying to know from whence he introduced it,
and where it originated.

In “ Taylor’s Arator,” published in Virginia the beginning of
this century, on the subject of plowing hilly lands, it is stated
“that such lands will admit of narrow ridges, as well as level, by
a decree of skill and attention so easily attainable, that it has ex-
isted in Scotland above a century past under a state of agricul-
ture otherwise execrable, and among the ignorant Highlanders !
It is effected by carrying the ridges horizontally in such inflec-
tions as the hilliness of the ground may require, curved or zig-
zag, preserving the breadth. The preservation of the soil is
hardly more valuable than that of the rain water in the succes-
sive reservoirs thus produced to refresh the thirsty hill-sides, in-
stead of its reaching to and poisoning the valleys.” ,

It is very strange, if this system was pursued in Scotland so
very long ago, that there is no mention made of it in English
works.

During an extensive tour, and residence of over three years in
Europe, trom Great Britain to Naples, Italy, through Holland,
Belgium, France, Switzerland, and parts of Germany, we never
saw, heard or read of its being pursued in any of those countries
as it is done here, and we cannot conceive how it could have ever
been practiced in Scotland and not kept up now-a-days.

In our travels throughout the United States, we have seen it
pursued from Mississippi to North Carolina. We have been to
Monticello several times, when a student at the University of
Virginia, and though remarking the productiveness of the soil
there, and around Charlottsville, we were too young to notice
the mode of culture, but we are sure we never saw a rafter-level
or any other level applied to land in Virginia. Had we seen it
we should have noticed it, because we had followed it before we
went there to school, in 1836.

In “ Thaér’s Principles of Agriculture,” a standard German
work, in speaking of plowing ridges, he says: ‘‘ The most ad-
vantageous disposition of them that can be made on an inclined
surface, is to give them a horizontal or standing direction ;” but
he says nothing more on the subject. Had he been acquainted
with the method as pursued in the South, he would have written.
considerably on it.

We are inclined to believe the Horizontal system of plowing
is of Southern invention. We are astonished at the fact, since
the Southern planters and farmers have the reputation of being
such careless and wasteful cultivators of the soil.

We consider it the most important discovery of the modern
agricultural era. So important is it to the South, and to the

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 11

soil in every part of the world where it rains like it does here,
that the discoverer of the method deserves the lasting oratitude
of the Southern people, and a place upon the tablet of memory
next to that of the father of our country.

Hill-side ditching and guard-drains, were discovered subse-
quent to the origin or introduction of the horizontal system into
Virginia. They were first introduced into that State soon after
the introduction of the horizontal method, about 1815 or 1816 ;
by whom, we do not know.

The first written notice of the horizontal culture and hill-side
ditching that we ever saw, was in the pages of the ‘ Southern
Cultivator.” Major E. D. W., our step-father, first introduced
the method of Horizontal Plowing on the level system into this
county, in the spring of 1834. He had read a notice of it in
some paper, which induced him to try it on some hilly land at
the Dian Puace.

He used the rafter-level and plummet-line, and ran off rows
to be plowed four feet apart into beds for corn and cotton. We
were a boy then, and carried the hoe and made the chop marks
for him. He was so well pleased with the results of it, and with
his experiment, that he has continued it ever since with great
success on two plantations. He has a thousand or more acres
under the plumb. He has tested it thoroughly, and has pre-
served the fertility, retained the soil, and improved his lands,
aided by a proper application of manures, under a severe course
of cropping. Without this system, all the manure he could make
would not preserve half of the land in its present state of fertili-
ty for five years. He would as soon abandon planting as to
abandon the horizontal system of culture.

We have assisted him in the work a good deal, and induced
him to try guard-drains and hill-side ditches about 1851 or 1852,
in order to lighten his labor and lessen his care and attention to
it, as he is getting old and the confinement to the field and ex-
posure to the cold during the winter and spring, are injurious to
his health. But, he says, he could dispense with the drains and
ditches if he could attend to the plowing in person every spring,
aud direct the work and correct the errors of the previous year’s
work,

An old negro horizontaler lays off the rows, and attends to one
plantation where there are between six and seven hundred acres
under the plumb; and manages it astonishingly well for a man
of his understanding.

His lands were originally of a cood quality, and are of a mixed
character. On one plantation, the grey and mulatto sandy land
prevails, the subsoil being yellow and red clay a foot, and eigh-
teen inches originally, in parts of it, beneath the surface soil.—
The balance of the land is a chocolate loam on a red clay subsoil.

12 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

Some of it is considered stiff red clay land. On the other plan-
tation, the chocolate loam prevails with a close, stiff red clay
~ subsoil, requiring a long and sharp pointed plow to penetrate it
when moderately dry. The rest of the land on this plantation,
is grey and gravelly sandy soil, loose and porous. Most of the
land on both places, is gently undulating ridges. Some of it
hilly, and some knolls. The stiff red clay land is the most diffi-
cult and expensive to cultivate, and is the best land for grain.
It is also the most difficult of his land to manage on the level
method of culture.

I took my first lessons under him in the science, and owe him
a debt of gratitude which can never be paid. He taught me the
level culture, and I taught him the grading method. I com-
menced planting in 1844, in Hinds county, Mississippi, near
Jackson, in copartnership with a brother. The level culture No.
1, and the grading method No. 1, both combined, without drains
and hill-side ditches, had been in use a few years on that plan-
tation. The soil, a close, tenacious, marly clay, of a yellow
color, changing into an ashy colored soil, when thoroughly dis-
integrated and cultivated a year or two. I was partial to the
level culture, and he to the grading method. 1 found out after
a better acquaintance with the land, that the level culture re-
tained the water too long, and mdde the land too wet for cotton.
The grading method drained, but washed the land a good deal.
After testing both methods to my satisfaction, I gave into his
views rather from an avaricious motive than otherwise, to make
better crops, though at a sacrifice of some land that took the
streams and disappeared. From one to three inches fall were
given to each row, when practicable, and the short inside rows
plowed on a level. The land was rolling, and drains between
the ridges conveyed the water into ditches and branches. We
continued both systems until I left in December, 1850, and mov-
ed back to this place. The grading method has been kept up
by him. I commenced a mixed system here in 1851, and have
practiced both of them to a certain extent.

My land is chocolate and grey sandy land on a red and yellow
clay subsoil. The grey land is of a fine texture, and much of it
runs together and bakes. The chocolate land is loose and porous.
It is generally a little undulating, some rolling, and some flat
basins and ponds. It requires much ditching and surface drain-
age, and some under-draining. Forest growth, pine, oak, hick-
ory, chestnut and poplar, with a variety of undergrowth.

My experience and observation teaches me, that the level cu/-
ture is the best method ever discovered to prevent arable land, of
the majority of soils in the South, from washing by rains, but
not the best always to secure good crops. The grading method
is the safest as a general rule for the culture of cotton, and can

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 13

be pursued to great advantage on many soils that could be culti-
vated well on the level method, when one is willing to lose a lit-
tle soil to make a better crop, by draining the land. No one
system of culture is, then, applicable to all soils; and on large
plantations of mixed soils, both the level and grading systems
should be applied. He is a fortunate man who understands the
different methods well enough to apply them to the best advan-
tage to the different soils, on a large plantation. It requires
close application to field study, a good knowledge of the geology
of the soil and the agricultural character of the land, with years
of experience, to know how to cultivate land to the best advan-
tage to the soil, and to the increased size of the purse.

SECTION I.

DEFINITION OF HORIZONTAL CULTURE.

Horizontalizing, Circling, and Leveling land are difterent
terms employed by Agriculturists, in the South, to mean the
same thing ; viz.: cultivating land in parallel lines run by a lev-
eling instrument to direct and control rain water with the plow.

SECTION II.
ITS OBJECTS.

The objects of the System of horizontal culture are, to irrigate,
to drain, and to preserve arable soil, in the simplest and most
economical manner. :

Ist. By collecting, maintaining, and distributing rain water,
on the surface of arable land, it effects natural irrigation.

2d. By conveying it away, by artificial channels, it effects
drainage.

3d. By a proper system of irrigation and drainage, the soil
and the food of plants are retained, and the fertility of the land
is preserved.

SECTION III.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

Rain water being a solvent of the food of plants, and the me-
dium of supplying them with many of their elements, the sys-
tem of horizontal culture teaches us to control, and diffuse it in

14 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

the soil, and distribute it in such a manner that the food of
plants it contains, may be made available to the utmost degree,
in promoting their growth ; and, when it exists in excess, to re-
move it without i injuring, or washing away the soil.

Hence, we conclude that a correct system of manuring and
improving land, depends greatly upon a proper regulation of

water by ‘the horizontal culture.

We perceive, then, that the horizontal culture is a beautiful
branch of the science of Agriculture ; that it isa mixed art, a
combination of irrigation, dr ainage, and manuring. We cannot,
therefore, study it ‘well, appreciate it properly, and practice it
successfully, without some knowledge of agricultural engineering,
of the ceoloay of the scil, and hydraulics, “and the application of
them to irrigation and drainage.

We can then realize and appreciate the several advantages and
connections of these branches of science with each other, in de-
veloping the chemical and physical properties of soils, and in the
improvement of the fertility of land. To practice it scientifically,
and successfully, we must study and understand the geological
formation, and the agricultural character of the soil, and ascer-
tain by observation and experiment what plants grow on it best,
and are most profitable to cultivate.

Drill-husbandry, that is, the cultivation of crops in drills, by
the ridge and furrow method, is indispensable, and the check and
hill-culture are inadmissible except on level lands, as a general
rule, by the system of horizontal culture. Of course, the broad- |
cast method can be employed, as well with one method as with
the other. The horizontal culture, by the ridge and furrow
method, conflicts with the practice and opinions of many farmers,
in the oldest of the Southern States, who advocate the check and -
hill culture ; but an acquaintance with the horizontal culture
changes their practice and opinions.

SECTION IV.

THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF HORIZONTALIZING
LAND

Are divided into two principal systems : viz :
Ist. The level Method of Culture.
2d. The Grading Method of Culture.

The Level Method, (or Irrigating System,) is divided into two
methods ; viz:

Ist. Horizontaling with an instrument, on the level culture,
without the aid of guard-drains, and hill-side ditches ; and,

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 15

2d. The level culture, aided by those drains and ditches.

The Grading Method, or Draining System, is divided into four
different systems, viz:

1st. Horizontaling with an instrument, giving a grade to the
rows, without the assistance of guard-drains, and hill-side ditches.

2d. With a grade to the rows, the same as that given to the
drains and ditches, accompanied by those drains and ditches.

3d. With a grade given to the rows so as to empty their water
into the drains and ditches.

4th. The straight-row method. The rows run up and down
hills, and empty into hill-side ditches.

Besides the above methods, there is the old mode of horizon-
taling with the eye, without the aid of an instrument, or guard-
drains, or hill-side ditches.

SECTION V.
THE DIFFERENT METHODS EXPLAINED.

The old method of hill-side plowing by running the rows
around hill-sides with the plow, directed with the eye, is mere
euess work, and only an approximation to accuracy, and of course
is very impertect.

It is done with the object of retaining the rain water in some
instances, and of removing it in others ; in either case, it cannot
effect the object in as perfect a manner as the new methods of
level and grade work done on correct principles, by the leveling
instrument.

When the object is to retain the rain water, it answers tolera-
bly well in some countries, on porous, poor, sandy soils, where the
showers are not frequent and are light, and where the luguminous —
crops are cultivated mostly on high beds and lands, as a substi-
tute for artificial irrigation, and where the spade and hoe are
used, generally, for the purpose of forming the ridges.

When adopted to drain hill-sides by the plow, unless the soil
it not disposed to wash, it is very liable to do more injury to
the land by washing it away than benefit by removing the water.

It should not by any means be resorted to now, since we can
substitute better methods for it. It is the first step towards the
horizontal culture from the straight-row method ; and was per-
haps invented for the purpose of retaining instead of removing
water.

1. Level Culture or Irrigating System.—By this method the
rows are laid off with a leveling instrument on a perfect level,
and the land cultivated without the aid of guard-drains, or hill-
side ditches.

16 DR. N. ti. SORSBY’S ESSAY

Here, science steps in to correct the imperfections of the eye.

It is impossible to lay off a level row by the eye. The most
skillful horizontaler cannot judge with accuracy the degree of in-
clination of lands, and discover all the inequalities of surface well
enough to horizontal land ona level by the eye. But, with a
rafter-level properly made and adjusted, it can be done, on an
even or uneven surface with perfect accuracy, on a dead level ;
and if the land be properly plowed the rows will hold all the
water that falls on them.

It is the best and only system ever invented to prevent com-
paratively level, and gently undulating lands, from washing.

It is intended to retain all the water that falls on land just
where it falls: this is natural irrigation. Weall know the value
of water for the nourishment of animals and plants. They can-
not live without it. Crops often fail for the want of it. By this
method none is wasted. Enough water is absorbed during win-
ter and spring rains by land cultivated on this system, to almost
make some crops, especially when aided by light summer showers,
that would fail to do so, cultivated by the grading method.
This method is most applicable to all poor, thirsty, porous sandy
soils, whether they rest on clay or sandy subsoils ; and to many
varieties of clay soils not too compact and retentive of water.

We think we may say with truth, that we never knew, in this
country, but one kind of clay soil, on uplands, that this system
was not applicable to, on the ground of making it too wet for
profitable culture. That is the fine, close, tenacious, marly-clay
soil, resting on a retentive yellow clay subsoil, of the black-jack,
post-oak, and hickory ridges of Hinds, Madison, Yazoo, Carrol,
Holmes, Warren, arfd other parts of Mississippi.

Besides this kind of soil to which the level culture is objec-
tionable, are the compact red and yellow clay soils of some hilly
lands, and the blue and white clays of low-lands.

The red and yellow clay lands may be cultivated by it, if they
admit of subsoiling to advantage. It is seldom that the level
culture is objectionable for corn and small grains, and the root
crops. But when it causes the soil to become too wet during
the cultivation of crops, to plow well, and hastens a rapid growth
of grass and weeds that destroy the crops, it is an evidence that
it should be abandoned, and a grading method substituted for it.

2. Level Culture with Guard-drains, or Hill-side Ditches.—
The rows are plowed on a level, and guard-drains, or hill-side
ditches are added, with a slight grade:to correct the evil of the
excess of water, and remove it, should the ridges break. Some
soils, such as close tenacious clays, though plowed deep, may ab-
sorb a great deal of water during heavy and repeated rains, until
the plowed soil becomes well saturated ; the water will then sink
until it reaches the impervious strata, not broken by the plow,

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 17

and move along that strata on steep hill-sides, until it accumu-
lates in such quantities as to break the ridges, and flow downhill,
carrying the soil with it.

Again, in clay soils, plowed shallow, a heavy rain succeeding
another heavy rain, that had run the land together, and baked
by the sun, and closed its pores, may cause the water to accumu-
late in level rows until the volume and weight of water makes a
breach, and some of the ridges give way, and the water is pre-
cipitated from row to row till it reaches an outlet.

A mole, a stump, bad plowing, the wheels of a cart or wagon,
and other causes may break the ridges, and cause the land to
wash. To prevent such a disaster, guard-drains and _hill-side
ditches have been invented, to aid and protect the level culture,
and to correct the ignorance and errors of the inexperienced hori-
zontaler, and save his time, labor, and soil. But, in many in-
stances, they encourage careless work, and are sometimes evils to
the system. They should not be relied upon too much ; the
remedy is sometimes worse than the disease.

1. The Grading Method, (or Draining System.)—The great
object of this method is surface drainage, of arable land : hence
it is divided into,

Ist. Horizontaling with a grade given to the rows, without
the aid of guard-drains and hill-side ditches.

Every row is designed to drain itself, and of course the other
drains are unnecessary. It is a kind of self-sustaining system,
and a substitute for straight rows. It is beautiful in theory, but
difficult to practice in a general system, on all soils. Some fields,
and parts of fields, no grade is necessary, whilst different grades
are required according to the inclination of land, and the physi-
cal properties of soils, and the length of rows. The length of
rows is very irregular by this method, and short rows emptying
into long ones, pouring their water into them, force them to wash
into gullies. Hence, it is impossible to prevent the soil from
washing by this method. It should be confined to close clay
soils. This method, combined with level culture, answers a bet-
ter purpose. |

2d. Horizontaling with a grade given to the rows the same
as that of guard-drains and hill-side ditches. This method was
adopted, doubtless, to correct the evils of the preceding method.

When the drains are well made, they check the flow of water
descending down the hills from the broken rows, and thus con-
vey it away and protect the land beneath them. Without their
aid much mischief might take place, but if the work by the pre-
ceding method be well done, there is no need of the drains to aid
it. Imperfect work, then, excuses theiremployment. But they
are indispensable evils to the system they are used to protect,
.and are much employed.

18 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

3. Horizontaling with a grade given to the rows so as to
empty their water into guard-drains and hill-side ditches.

This is truly a draining process, employed on clay-up-lands,
and low-lands, and answers a good purpose when the rows are
not too long, and the fall is correct. Of course the drains and
ditches require considerable fall, and to be very capacious. It is
popular with those planters who have clay soils, and trust much
to overseers, and negroes, and kind Providence for gentle show-
ers, to make them crops. But overseers make mistakes, plow-
men do bad work, and the clouds pour down heavy rains, and the
soil, as it were, melts and runs rapidly away. To answer a good
purpose, the overseers, plowmen, and drains require strict atten-
tion, or the land will be injured by this method.

4. The Straight row Method, with Hill-side Ditches —The
ditches in this instance are cut on hill-sides with considerable
fall, and the land is plowed on the old straight-row method, the
plowman raising his plow over the ditch banks as he passes
them. It is evidently a troublesome business to raise the plow
over the ditches, and keep them clean. If the soil be sandy, and
disposed to wash, the ditches must be deep and large, the fall
great, and the plowman careful, which is contrary to negro char-
acter, or else every heavy rain will fill up the ditches with sand,
break their banks, and cut the land into gullies and galls.
However, it has the recommendation of being simple, and better
than the old up and down hill method, without the protection
of ditches.

Experience will soon teach any one that it is a bad system for
hilly lands ; for low-lands it answers a good purpose for quick
and effectual drainage, and enables some low-lands to be culti-
vated that could not be without this kind of drainage.

On the rich low wet lands, and the rolling up-lands, in the
prairie or lime lands of Alabama and Mississippi, when too wet,
this kind of expeditious drainage is the sine qua non,—the pro-
per method to remove the water, and dry the land in time to
prepare it for a crop, and to save the cotton from damage by ex-
cess of water.

SECTION VI.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE LEVEL METHOD.

It is true there are deep, sandy, alluvial soils that absorb all
the water that falls on them during the heaviest rains ; but
again, there are other soils when cultivated on the straight-row
method, that are injured by the irregular distribution of water,
one part of the field being drained too much, whilst the land be-
low it is being drowned ; thereby, both parts sustaining an injury.

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 19

The crops on such land grow and mature irregularly in con-
sequence of the irregular distribution of the water and the
culture. The level culture corrects these evils. It retains the
water and soil in its proper place, and when the land is culti-
vated alike, all remains nearer the condition of dryness, and the
crops grow off more uniformly on the same quality of land and
mature nearer the same time.

Should the land be manured, the elements of the manure re-
main where deposited, and not removed by the first rain to the
nearest ditch or branch. It irrigates and preserves the soil, when
properly done. It is the best method to employ to aid in restor-
ing exhausted lands.

It is very difficult to lay down any set of rules by which to do
the work ; because, the physical properties of soils are such, and
the inequalities of land vary so much, no one rule or set of rules
would apply to any great extent of surface. One part of a field
might require the level culture, and another part the grading
method. Hence, we are forced to adopt the one or the other,
according to circumstances, and to do the work correctly, we must
be acquainted with all the different methods.

It matters but little, where the work begins or terminates in
the field, so the rows are laid off accurately, on a level. The
most important rule is to follow the level, let it lead to whatever
point it may. It will run at every point of the compass, and
form rows of every imaginable form and length, terminating any
where in the field. It will lead the new beginner in the art, into
amaze from which he can scarcely extricate himself, but he
should have patience and perseverance, and all will come out
right and no land be lost. He must be content to follow the
level, but not try and make it follow him, and force it to any
particular place or termination. The only way to terminate a
row at a certain point, is to start the level at that point; but

_ten chances to one, in returning, if the next row does not go off
at an angle, and terminate at some distance from the first start-
ing point. It is immaterial whether the rows be long, short,
straight or crooked, or where they begin and terminate, so they

- are on a level, and the land be well plowed in rows or ridges.
This should ever be borne in mind. The horizontaler will make

mistakes, and be awkward at first, but will learn to do the work
correctly.

SECTION VII.
ADVANTAGES OF THE LEVEL METHOD.

This system is the best mode of cultivating land ever invented
to prevent the devastating effects of rain water washing away
the soil and the manures put upon it. It enables the soil to ab-

20 DR. N. T, SORSBY’S ESSAY

sorb more water, and retain it better, and give it back to plants
. when needed, more effectually and regularly than any other mode,
thus preventing the deleterious.effects of drought. It makes
the soil more uniform in production; improves its fertility by
retaining the manures ; makes it easier to work, with less labor ;
causes the crops to grow faster, more uniform in growing and
maturing ; and as the rain water is evenly distributed on all
parts of the field alike, when one part can be plowed, all can be

done at the same time, and saves time turning around at wet
land.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE LEVEL METHOD.

It seems in the order of things in this world, there is always
an evil attached to almost every good. So it is in this instance,
but we shall find that the disadvantages disappear by practice,
and are counterbalanced by the advantages.

The disadvantages are, the unavoidable necessity of having so
nany short rows terminating at any part of the field, forcing the
plowman to turn around often, and lose time by so doing: (this
- time, however, is made up in the greater number of long rows.)
The injury to the crop, done by the plow, the mule and the hand
in turning around at the end of the short rows. The ditiiculty
at first of doing the work well, and of plowing the rows out with-
out breaking up the work, and deranging the rows. The constant
care and attention, by the overseer or employer, to maintain and
keep up the system. The necessity of using the ridge and fur-
row system and abandoning the check and hill culture.

SECTION VIII.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE GRADING METHOD.

Surface drainage is one of the most important operations con-
nected with the tillage of the Southern soil. The value of the
grading method cannot be over-estimated. It has to contend
with a troublesome element, that is a moveable element, always
seeking its level, whose particles have a great affinity for each
other, and running together whenever they can, thus accumu-
lating in a mass, and increasing its volume and velocity when in
motion. ‘This element we wish to control with a level and the
plow on the surface of arable land, and derive all the advantages
of it we can as a feeder of plants, and at the same time, get rid
of the excess that would prove injurious to the soil and growing
plants. Nature does this for us in some soils and teaches us
how to do it in others. It sinks the water in porous soils, and
stores it up for future use of plants, and removes it when super-

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. oF

abundant, from undulating close clay soils before it does injury
to the plants that do not require it, teaching us to level porous
thirsty soils, and deepen and drain compact close soils. We
should study carefully the operations of nature, and apply its
beautiful principles to the present subject, and conform them to
the limited capacity of the uneducated minds of men. Very few
fields of one hundred acres have the same inclination of surface,
and one variety and depth of soil. Land slopes in every direc-
tion, and each hill-side or plane of inclination requires some-
times a different mode of drainage and a different method of
culture. :

In examining a field, we may find some acres requiring the
level culture, others again, one method of grading, and another
a different method, and so on perhaps, through the whole list of
the different methods of grading. It would be improper, then,
to employ one system alone for every part of the field. The dif-
ferent methods should be applied according to the demands of
the land. Science should guide us, and the one-system horizon-
taler is led into error by his efforts to apply it to all localities
and inclinations of surface of land. We should be acquainted
with all the systems, and not make a hobby of any one. Better
try first one and then another, in experimenting, and select those
that are best and most applicable to the land. . If we find a
straight row more convenient and better than a crooked one, if
it be correct, adopt it, without sticking to the idea that the hori-
zontal culture consists of a system of crooked rows. Experience
will soon teach the new beginner the degree of grade necessary to
give to his rows and drains, and the number of drains or ditches
to use, to drain a certain area of land. The grade to the rows
and drains is governed by the kind of soil, the declivity of the
land, the extent of the surface to be drained, and the method of
horizontaling they are intended to aid. If the level culture, with
drains, be adopted, a few shallow guard-drains with a fall of from
one to two inches for every span of the level, may answer in
moderately close clay soils, and less fall in porous sandy spils.
If the grading method be adopted, the fall of the rows and the
drains depends upon the kind of method of plowing used, and
the nature of the soil cultivated. We should recollect, that the
washing power of water descending a hill recently plowed, is
dependent upon thedeclivity and the length of the hill, the depth
of the plowing, the character of the soil, and the quantity of
water in motion. Hence, the greater the fall, the longer the
hill, the shallower the plowing, the more porous and light the
soil, and the greater the volume of water, the more the land will
be washed. If the grade be not sufficient and the dimensions
great enough, the rows are apt to be chocked and broken. A
regular and proper grade must be given, and if an error be com-

22 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

mitted, it should be on the side of too little fall. If the grade
be too much the rows will wash into gullies. Guard-drains and
hill-side ditches should have grade and capacity enough to drain
the land speedily and effectually, without having their sides and
bottoms washed too much. With a proper fall and dimensions,
they may be used to convey sand to fill up gullies, basins, and
deposit it convenient to cover galled places.

SECTION IX.
ADVANTAGES OF THE GRADING METHOD.

It possesses all the advantages of surface drainage of arable
soils in a simple and the best possible manner without doing
serious damage to the land. It is the best method ever invented
to assist in breaking up galls and gullies, and filling up depres-
sions in the land, and the beds of old ditches and branches, as
well as ponds, basins and bogs, and in aiding the plow and the
hoe in restoring worn-out soils.

It possesses, also, many of the advantages of the level culture.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE METHOD.

By careless construction of drains, and neglecting to attend to
them afterwards, they are liable to choke and break, and wash
the land below them into gullies. When they have too much
fall, each row or drain is apt to wash into a gully, and do harm
to land below their mouths by covering it with sand. They dis-
tribute water irregularly, and where not demanded, drying the
ridges and hills too much, and drowning the bottoms. Upon
the whole, they are of minor importance compared to the benefits
of drainage.

SECTION X.
SUBSOIL PLOWING

Means loosening the subsoil with a plow without any mould-
board to turn it up.

We have seen, Nature teaches us three important operations
that are essential to the perfection of the horizontal culture, viz:
to open, to deepen and to drain the soil. :

An open, deep and dry soil, we all know, can be cultivated to
better advantage and profit, by either the level culture, or grad-
ing method, than a close, shallow and wet soil by any method.
The latter requires much labor and time to open, deepen and

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 23

drain it, and if a good soil the labor pays, if a bad soil the labor
is often lost.

Under the soil of some stiff red clay lands, long cultivated,
originally good, there frequently exists a strata of compact clay
and sand, called a hard-pan, formed by the treading of the stock
and sole of the plow, cemented together by oxide of iron, clay
and fine sand. It exists, sometimes, in gravelly soils, but less
frequent. Wherever it prevails it makes the land hard to culti-
vate, and it produces sorry crops. It is always on extremes of
wetness or dryness. Such land is difficult to horizontalize, with-
out the aid of subsoil plowing.

Again, the plow forms in clay land, on the subsoil, small gut-
ters or channels, into which the water sinks, accumulates, flows
and washes the soil, obstructs the work of the horizontaler by
breaking the ridges and undermining the banks of drains and
ditches when they are not made deep enough on hill sides to ex-
tend below these channels.

The subsoil plow aids very much the horizontal culture by
breaking up the hard pan, the gutters or underground water fur-
rows, galls and gullies, on clay lands ; it opens, deepens, pulver-
izes the subsoil, drains the surface soil by sinking the water, and
extending the area of air, manures, and the roots of plants, and
thus producing a decided amelioration of the soil and subsoil.

The best time to do the work is winter and spring, when the
land is moist and soft, and when time can be taken to do it well.
The most effectual plan is to open a furrow with a two-horse
plow, with a good turning mould-board, and follow in the same
furrow with the two-horse subsoil plow, as deep as both plows
can be drawn. If the time cannot be spared to run so many
subsoil furrows, half the number will answer a good purpose.
An expeditious plan for corn land is to open the water furrow
between the ridges, with a scooter plow, deep, and follow it with
the subsoil plow ; put in the manure, and bed out with scooters
and. shovels, finishing with a turning plow to make a good water
furrow.

When employed in lands for small grain the subsoil plow can
be run to advantage in the old water furrow, which is the centre
of the land when plowed out, and also in the new water firrow
left open. We need not fear subsoiling clay and gravelly soils
when hard and compact, especially when old and much worn.

SECTION XI.
TRENCH PLOWING.

This differs from subsoiling, by raising up the subsoil, and
mixing it with the surface soil, with a turning plow following in
the furrow of another turning plow. It brings up the subsoil,

24 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

disintegrates the hard-pan and distributes them through the sur-
face soil. It is of great assistance to the horizontal culture, by
breaking up the gullies, galls and hard-pan, and thus lays the
foundation of the process of restoring the fertility of worn-out
lands.

If the soil was of a good quality originally, and the subsoil of
the same quality, trench plowing is of much advantage to the
land to deepen and mix the two. But if the land be poor, and
the subsoil poor red clay, the trenching should be done by a
scooter plow, following in the furrow of the turning plow with
the viéw of breaking up the subsoil, and pulverizing it, without
mixing them too much. Mixing a poor clay with a poor soil is
bad policy, unless much manure is added to improve it. Sub-
soiling and trench-plowing are often confounded with each other,
but are quite different operations.

SECTION XII.
LAND-GALLS.

These are abrasions of the soil, by rain water removing the
soil of clay lands long cultivated by the old wash-away method,
and leaving the clay exposed. They might be very properly
called land-sores, of a virulent character, and hard to heal. The
best way to treat them, is to scarify them deep every spring, sow
them down in peas, plow them in the fall, and sow in rye ; re-.
peat the same operation next year, cover them with all the leaves,
stalks, long manure of any kind, and the third year a tolerable
crop of corn or cotton may be grown on them. To manage them
to the best advantage, they should be surrounded, or cut off to
themselves, by guard-drains, or hill-side ditches.

SECTION XIII.
GULLIES.

These are open water-channels, caused by rain water and care-
less up and down hill plowing. They are hideous objects to the
eye of a scientific and practical farmer, and should receive the
condemnation of all good husbandmen.

There are many ways of filling them up, but in doing so,
sometimes two are made in place of one, unless it be properly
done and aided by the horizontal culture. The land requires to
be well graded and the direction of the water changed, and not
be permitted to flow so abundantly down the gullies as before.

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 25

When they are less than three feet deep, they may be stopped
and filled up in two or three ‘years, in this way. Every twenty
steps drive up stobs or oak boards across and in the gulley, close
together, to catch and hold the dirt and water in part; then,
throw in leaves, tussucks of grass, corn and cotton stalks, pine
straw, pine tops, with the laps up hill, and plow up and down
on each side of it, and drag in as much dirt as possible with hoes.
Sow them in peas and rye, and let grass grow in them. Plow
horizontally across, keeping the same regular grade in passing
them ; to do so, the rows will make a curve up and down.
Large gullies will require more labor and time to fill them up.
Cut a ditch across them at proper distances apart, and pile logs
on each other in the ditch, until the top log reaches above the
banks of the gully. Now gather all the rubbish, stumps, stones,
logs, leaves, pine saplings, with the laps up hill, into the gulley,
and draw in all the dirt convenient and pack it against the logs,
and on the pine tops, soas to make a dam. The drains and
hill-side ditches can be emptied into them, and supply dirt to
fill them up. Allow grass, weeds, peas, and small grain to grow
in them. In a few years they will be filled up, and bear some
crop every year to hide them from the gaze of a neat farmer.

SECTION XIV.
GUARD-DRAINS AND HILL-SIDE DITCHES.

- Guard-drains are shallow, open water channels, made with the
plow and hoe, on arable land, laid off with a leveling instrument,
with a regular and gentle grade, directed around undulating
ridges and hill-sides, for the purpose of receiving and conveying
away superfluous rain water.

Hill-side ditches are a variety of guard, or catch-water ditches,
but intended to operate more effectually than they, by having a
greater capacity and grade, in order to remove a greater volume
of water in a shorter time from hilly lands. They are a part of
the system of horizontal culture, and are used to aid and pro-
tect it, and correct its defects. We may very properly term them
the safety-valves of that system, when properly constructed, and
waste-ways when improperly constructed.

They are valuable adjuncts to the horizontal culture, and
especially to the grading methods, when made according to cor-
rect principles of hydraulics. On loose, sandy lands, they should
be dispensed with whenever it can be done with safety, and as
few as possible be used, and they as far apart from each other,
and as short as the nature of the land will admit of, to effect the

26 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

desired object. Clay lands, that have been plowed up.and down
hill, in straight rows for years, and a good deal abraded and
washed into gullies, require the drains and ditches to be well
made. It takes two or three years sometimes to break up the
old water furrows and gullies, and change the course of the water,
unless deep plowing be combined with the grading method.
Guard-drains usually answer the purpose on gently undulating
lands.

Hill-side ditches are best on hilly lands. Inexperienced hori-
zontalers would do well in commencing the horizontal culture, to
employ drains to protect their imperfect work. They should be
made as short as possible, avoiding all abrupt curves or sudden
bends, and directed around ridges or hills from a medium point,
dividing the water and discharging it on both sides of the ridge
or hill into a ditch, gulley, branch, or outside of the field, where
no damage to adjoining lands may be done. The fall should be
gradual and uniform, and just sufficient to discharge the water
without washing their sides and bottoms.

The size of drains and ditches should be determined by refer-
ence to a variety of circumstances, the combined influence of
which may generally be estimated in practice, although not re-
ducible to any very exact rules, viz: Ist, we must consider the
annual quantity of rain ; 2d, the quantity which falls on the
land during a heavy rain ; 3d, the nature of the soil as to poro-
sity or compactness; 4th, the inclination of land; 5th, the
length of slopes and extent of surface to be drained. Every
horizontaler must take into consideration these things, and judge
for himself.

A general and important rule as to the capacity of drains is,
that they should exceed rather than be deficient in the dimen-
sions ordinarily required to discharge the quantity of water for
which provision is to be made. A good rule by which the depth
of drains may be estimated, can be derived from a knowledge of
the character of the soil and its action upon water. Thus: a
light, deep, porous, sandy soil, will absorb water as fast as it
falls, if it lies level ; if undulating, it will absorb it not so fast,
and the deeper and more porous the soil and subsoil, the more
and faster it will absorb. On the contrary, a shallow, sandy soil
on a clay subsoil and clay lands, will absorb less water, more
slowly, and more of it will pass off. It will follow the under-
ground plow furrows when absorbed, and the drains should ex-
tend below those furrows to catch the water. The close clay
soils, and the stiff lime lands absorb water slowly, and if they be
deep, the drains should extend below the soil, and nearer together
than in porous soils.

The kind of drains to be used, their depth, and distance apart,
can be ascertained by experiment alone. It is safest for the new

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 27

beginner to follow the example of those who have tested them on
similar soil to his, and where found to answer well.

The following scale of the depths and distances of drains and
ditches, may give an idea of what they require, according to the
classification of soils into compact, medium, and porous, each of
which variety may be subdivided into several degrees of porosity
and retentiveness :

CHARACTER OF SOILS.| — DRAINS.
NOT SUBSOILED. |’ PEEEH SOR DEPTH OF | gixD OF DRAINS. | DISTANCE APART.
SOILS. DRAINS.
me nim 32 | i : a
According to the De-
POROUS. ‘Feet. Inches.|Feet. Inches. Glivity of Beads!
i ; | | : 4
Mea ee (fresh land,) ¢ | 1 00 0 10 Guard-Drains. 'Wide apart..
Light gravelly Sand,---- 2 | | am :
Goaras gravelly Sand, --- ¢ | 0 10 1 00 joeera rain Wide apart.
MEDIUM. | |
Clayey Loam,...-.-.--..-- | 0 8 1 00 Guard-Drains. Not so wide apart.
= aa ll ra { | 0 lo | 0 10 Guard-Drains. Not so wide apart.
z | |
; COMPACT. | Need Subsoiling.
Tenacious Clay,---------- | O Ce | ae 00 Hill-Side Ditches. Close together.
Eriable (Clay,s-.-.----2-==|) 0 8 1 00 tt “ te “
NO MTOG-Olby, coos nscsacs | 0 10 1 00 i f Not so close.

If the land be subsoiled, the drains must be deepened, and
made wider apart. The tenacious clays are not very commonly
cultivated in the South. They are too wet for cotton.

: SECTION XV.
DRILL HUSBANDRY

By the ridge and furrow system, in contradistinction to the check
and hill method, is indispensable to the horizontal culture. Ridg-
ing and bedding up land is so familiar to every plowman in the
South, little need be said relative to the manner in which it
should be done. They are made both by shallow and deep plow-
ing. We prefer shallow plowing and flat beds, in new ground,
stubble or sward land, and in porous light sandy, and loose gravelly
soils. Deep plowing is best in old hard upland clay soils, that
need deepening and opening, in bald prairie lands, and in low
wet lands of both kinds.

The height of ridges and lands are dependent’ upon the kind ,
of culture, the crop grown, and the character of the soil.

For potatoes, we desire them high when the plants are set, and
when the crop is laid by.

For corn, we prefer them flat in dry uplands, higher in low-
lands, with clean water furrows.

28 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

For cotton, in fresh land, and porous alluvial, and light sandy
lands, moderately flat beds may answer very well. They are
regulated by the width of the beds. In clay lands, the cotton
beds should be high and narrow, and the water furrows deep and
clean. “ We prefer not to plant cotton in wet land, but if it be
done, high beds well drained, is the only remedy against the dis-
astrous effects of water. The cotton beds are made close or wide,
according to the quality and productiveness of the land. In
rich river bottoms, and black cane brake lands, they vary from
five to eight feet wide. Thin and medium quality, upland, san-
dy and prairie lands, they vary from three to four feet in width ;
some poor lands, they are as near as two and a half feet apart.

We cultivate our land in ridges for corn, cotton, peas and po-
tatoes ; they vary in height and distance accor ding to the quality,
and dryness of the soil. They are from six to ‘fourteen inches
high, and from three to four feet wide apart, that is, from crown
to crown. When desiring to sow small grain in lands, we sow
the grain, and plow four or five ridges into a land, and preserve
the direction of the rows. ;

We sometimes sow cotton land in oats and rye, and throw
four turning plow furrows on the grain, and plow out the stalks
with a large two horse shovel, thereby making a fiat bed, drained
by the water furr ow, and preserving the width of the beds.

We sometimes sow rye in the fall in cotton land, and run two
sweep furrows im each row. In very porous land, if the rye be
sown just before cattle are turned in the field, no sweep furrow
need be run:

SECTION XVI.

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE RIDGE AND FURROW
SYSTEM

Are, that when the ridges or beds are well put up without too
oreat an inclination, it “facilitates drainage by breaking up the
crust formed on the surface of land that is sometimes so close
and tenacious as to prevent the water from sinking into the sub-
soil beneath the roots of plants ; it exposes a greater surface and
depth of land to the action of the sun and air ; it enables land
to be cultivated that cannot be cultivated on the hill and check
method, or any other method ; it renders land drier and less sub-
ject to the destructive effects of wet seasons ; it makes land easier
to work at all times, with less injury to the crops; the plowing
of spring and summer are less hazardous and laborious ; the till-
age of spring and summer is more certain and effectual ; thecrops
have a nice, mellow bed of loose, dry and warm earth to grow
and expand in above the cold and wet subsoil ; in fact, an arti-

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 29

ficial climate is produced, which improves the health, and has-
tens the growth of young and tender plants that demand such
especial care during spring ; and finally, it prevents land from
washing away, and is the basis and support of the horizontal
culture.

SECTION XVII.

THE CHECK AND HILL METHOD.

This method answers a good purpose on very loose, porous,
level pine lands, for potatoes and ground peas, cultivated mostly
with the hoe. It is objectionable to the horizontal culture be-
cause it upsets and breaks up the horizontal rows, and turns the
water loose, on the land, and destroys the effect desired by the
horizontal system. :

SECTION XVIII.
PLOWING STRAIGHT ROWS BY STAKKS.

This method has been pursued by farmers for ages, and is the
favorite plan with the majority of them at this time.

The great ambition of the plowman who lays off the rows is to
make them perfectly straight, regardless of hill or valley, across
the field from fence to fence ; nothing but a ditch stops him.

It is astonishing to see the accuracy with which it can be done
by a few stakes set in a line with each other. Of course, the
rows make beautiful drains to dry the hills, and cover. up and

‘drown the valleys with sand and water, The hill tops and sides
are ina few years cut into gullies, and the soil precipitated into
the valleys to impoverish them with sand and clay.

This-is truly the wash-away land killing method, and should
be abandoned by every farmer or planter who cultivates hilly
lands. Level plains of sandy land can be plowed in this man-
ner very well, without doing much injury to the soil, particularly
if the rows are changed and crossed every year or two. We adopt
straight rows whenever we can run them on a level.

SECTION XIX.
HORIZONTALING BY THE EYE.
Instead of running the rows up and down hill, in straight

lines, this method directs them around the hills, and diagonally
across them, with a considerable fall to them.

30 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

If they are directed diagonally across the fields, and desired to
be straight, they are laid off by stakes. If intended to circle the
hill, the horizontaler walks around the way he desires the rows
to run, and the plowman follows him, and lays off a guide-row.
The rows are then laid off by the guide-rows. This is guess
work, and very inaccurate. We have seen a very intelligent
planter, who was familiar with the horizontal culture, circle a
basin badly gullied, on horseback, followed by two plowmen, one
laying off after the other. The basin was surrounded by a guard-
drain that kept the water from the adjoiming land out of, and
conducted it off out of the field. The plowmen and the horizon-
taler were below this drain. As they passed over the gullies, it
was “‘gee Ben, haw Dick, haw Ben, gee Dick,” sometimes in
rapid succession, and was very amusing. We called this work a
horizontal farce.

The rows were laid off like the track of a snake in the sand,
and had they not been protectéd by the guard drain, they would
have been cut into many troublesome gullies and galls.

SECTION XX.
THE SPAN OR RAFTER-LEVEL.

Of the many leveling instruments in use, among Horizontalers,
the above is the best, because, it is the simplest, the easiest of
application, and is most generally employed. Besides, any car-
periter can make it.

In horizontaling land it is necessary to success, to keep a per-
fect level of the rows in the level culture, and a uniform fall of
them, and the drains in the grading system. The most conven-
ient and handy level is made with a span of 12 feet 45 inches,
and 6 feet high. This span is 2 of a perch: So that we can
readily calculate the length of the rows and the ditches, and esti-
mate the rise or fall of them per perch.

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 31

=~ ——~4 me ess ie aK
er tS OE ie eg NOSE Sa QTV ERD SEE IN SS

THE SPAN OR RAFTER-LEVEL.

EXPLANATION OF THE Ficure.—To construct this level, take
two strips of dressed heart pine plank, well seasoned, A B, 3
inches wide, # inches thick, and 12 feet 6 inches long. Another
strip for a foot brace, 1} inches wide, $ inches thick, and 11 feet
long, D.

Also, another for a middle brace, or graduated bar, 2 inches
wide, # inches thick, and 6 feet long, C. Lap one end of A
and B together, let them into each other, and make them secure
with wood screws, so that when fast, the other ends of the strips
may be 12 feet, 45 inches apart from outside to outside, and the
level, when finished, be 6 feet high.

Make the foot brace, D, fast to these two strips, one foot from
the ground, when the level is standing on its feet.

Make the middle brace, C, fast to the same strips, three feet
from the top, and saw off the ends of all, so that the level, when
completed, will have the dimensions, and span the distance above
mentioned. Paint it, and when dry graduate it thus, viz: Sus-
pend a plumb line with an ounce lead from the centre of the top,
and let the bob extend two inches below the middle brace.

With a spirit level find a perfect level on a plank, and stand
the Rafter Level on it. Mark where the plumb line crosses the
cross bar with a pencil, and the places occupied by the feet ;
change the feet, and put each in the place occupied by the other;
mark again with a pencil where the plurab line crosses the bar ;
if it crosses exactly in the place it crossed before, that is the cen-
tre of the level, and the true line; if not, the exact distance half
way between the two lines is the level lime. To be very exact,
the assistance of a spirit level will find it. The true line of

oo DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

level being found, mark on the top of the bar 0, and make a
plain line on the front side of the bar to correspond with 0.
Now put a } inch block under the left foot of the level, and mark
where the line settles, and 4 on the top of the bar; remove the
4 inch block, and put a 1 inch block under that foot, and mark
where the line crosses the bar, and 1 on top of the bar ; proceed
in that manner until it is graduated to 6 inches. Repeat the
same process for the right foot, and other side of the line on the
bar, and the level will be graduated ready for work.

SECTION XXI.

APPLICATION OF THE RAFTER LEVEL TO THE
LEVEL CULTURE.

The manner of using the level is the same for both methods,
with this difference: for the Level Method the rows are laid off,
and plowed on a dead level, whilst for the Grading Method, a
fall is given to the rows and drains.

It is necessary to be more accurate, and apply the level oftener
for the level method, than for the grading method.

Before going to work, we must determine upon, first, the kind
of crop to be cultivated; second, the character of the soil; third,
the inclination of the land, whether comparatively level plains,
undulating ridges or hills; and fourth, the method of horizontal-
ing desired.

To illustrate and explain the different methods, we will select
a forty-five acre field, which we call the Gin-house field. Upon
examining it, we find a plain, a hill, a ridge, a basin, a pond,
and the balance undulating irregular surfaces, and wet flats and
ditches. The soil is a grey and dark sandy land, on a yellow and
red clay subsoil, of medium quality, that has been much abused
by bad plowing and constant cropping. It presents a sufficient
variety of soil, and undulations of surface, necessary to explain
our subject.

It was horizontalized by me in 1851.

SECTION XXII. f

TO HORIZONTAL A PLAIN BY THE EYE ON THE
STRAIGHT ROW METHOD.

Wewill go to the field, with the level well graduated, accompan-
ied by a small boy, who carries a bundle of canes or sticks, some one
foot, and some six feet long. A sensible plowman, with a quick,

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 33

tractable mule, with a scooter or rooter plow, and a hill-side
mould-board plow follows.

To try the skill of the plowman, and the temper and spirit of
the mule, we select a plain on which the Gin-house stands, for
operation. We suppose the field to be a stubble-field, having
been always plowed up and down hill. Having determined upon
the direction of the rows, and the points of departure and termi-
nation for them, we direct the plowman how to proceed, order
him to set his stakes, “‘ be sure you are right, and then go ahead,”
and lay off four feet rows. As negroes’ memories are short, and
they are careless, and mules slow and stubborn, we wait to see
him started. If he proves to be inefficient, and lays off crooked
rows, irregular distances apart, and can do no better, we dismiss
him, as not trusty and skillful, and procure another plowman,
because much depends upon his skill for our work to succeed,
Should he answer the purpose, we leave him and go hence to

SECTION XXIII.
CIRCLE THE ROUND BASIN.*

This basin has been partially drained by a ditch passing
through it, and emptying into the main ditch, but never suc-
ceeded, because the ditch has never been deep enough, and the
margins of the basin are too high to admit of deepening it enough
without much labor.

We desire to circle it on a level, so that each row may hold its
water, and keep it out of the ditch as much as possible.

We will commence at the ditch, at the east side of the basin,
above the margin of the basin, where the land is comparatively
level, and lay off a guide-row that may embrace all the sloping
land inside of it.

We set the feet of the level on similar ground, and move the
forefoot, that is to lead off, until the plummet line, or spirit
bubble, indicates the true level. We stick down a long cane by
the side of the plum for the guide stake. We then move the
level and put the hindfoot by the side of the stake, and move the
forefoot from side to side, until the true level is found ; we move
it again, and put the hindfoot exactly in the place the forefoot
occupied, and find the level again ; we stick a short cane down
under the plumb ; we move the level again, and proceed in the
same manner, getting the level every time, and sticking a short
cane down every third, and a long cane down every sixth span of
the level, until we surrougd the basin, and return to the point,
or near the place we started from, and we put down the guide
stake there. The level may return to the ditch above or below,

* See fig. 1, Basin.

34 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

the first guide stake. It makes no difference, so the line is run
correctly, where it returns to the ditch.*

We now lay down the level and walk around and examine the
stakes. We will, perhaps, find them standing very irregularly,
not in a perfect curved line, but a little zigzag. A skillful hori-
zontaler can detect in a moment, by the eye, almost where the
true line of level is, and can move the stakes and re-set them, so
that the line will have a more regular curve; it being some-
where between the stakes, inside of some and outside of others.
Having arranged the stakes to our fancy, we start at the guide
stake, the plowman following, and we walk from stake to stake,
the plow moving them as the mule throws them down, and the
little boy picking them up, until we arrive at the last guide
stake, which is likewise plowed up.

We have now Jaid off and plowed a circular row, not a perfect
circle, and if there be no sudden curves in it, and if it suits our
fancy, we letit stand; butif we have any doubt about its accuracy,
we take the level and try it, and if necessary, mark the inaccu-
rate places, and run them over with the plow.

We now move the plowman on the inside of this guide row,
and commence four feet from that row and run a row by it, the
plowman carrying a four-feet measuring rod, with which he occa-
sionally measures the distance between them to see that he keeps
the proper distance; and thus he keeps around until he returns
to the guide stake. As the ditch is narrow and shallow he passes
over it, takes another row, and goes around as before, on the
basin side. We take the level and follow him, and test his row
to see if it be correct, and if there be any variations of importance
from a true level, we stop him and correct it. There are two or
three ways of doing this. A very convenient way to keep the
row going on around, is to widen the distance between the rows
alittle at one place, and narrow it at another. Or, if this can-
not be done, we put in a short row beginning at theditchand going
around until the defect is corrected. We have then to start anoth-
er row and lay off by that, which the plowman can do, and go
around again. Sometimes it becomes necessary to widen or nar-
row two or three rows, or put in two or three short rows, before
the defects are remedied.

In finishing the basin, the rows get shorter and shorter until
we have to wind up with a few short straight rows run parallel
with the ditch. This concludes the work inside. We now exam-
ine the first guide row and the land surrounding it, and if we see
that it has not embraced all the sloping land, we run one or more
rows on the outside of it, either entirely or partly around the
basin, as the case demands. If the basin had no outlet by a ditch,
we could commence to circle it, on either side, and go around and
stop on returning to the guide stake, nearly opposite to it. We

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 35

then get on the inside of it, and run the rows by it, as above stated.
It is seldom that a guide row on making a circle, returns and
meets again. Sometimes when we start to circle a basin, we com-
mence so far above the margin of the slope, that the level goes
off into the field instead of around the basin ; in that event we
go lower down on the margin to commence, so that the row may go
around the basin. But, if we find it necessary after trying the
level method for this basin, to protect the rows by a guard-drain
from the water around oozing into them, we can lay off a guard-
drain around it, to catch the water and discharge it into the
ditch.

If we find, upon experience, that the level culture is not appli-
cable to the basin, we can try a grading method. This is some-
times the case.

The plowman beds up the land high, in this basin, in the same

way that he beds up straight rows of the same distance apart,
except that he plows around the basin, and does not stop to turn
around at the ditch until he is obliged to do so from the nature
of the rows.

SECTION XXIV.

HORIZONTAL A HILL ON THE LEVEL METHOD—
NO. 1.

e We will now work on the Peach tree Hill.* About an acre on
the top of this hill is an uneven plain. The hill slopes North,
East and South. There is a fence on the South and West, anda
ditch on the North and East.

We can commence work almost any where, on the side or top
of the hill. For convenience of plowing we will begin on the
top, not far from the angle of the fences, and lay off a level row
from fence to fence. - This done in the same manner that we did
for the basin, moving the level as there, and staking the row for a
guide row. When ‘done the plowman begins and plows it out.
We test it and find it correct, and nearly straight, We put him
to laying off four feet rows by it next to the fence. They become
nearly straight before he finishes them. Whilst he is at work
there, we step down thirty paces to the brow of the hill, and com-
mence at the west fence and lay off another guide row, which makes
a curve as it goes around to the South fence. We exdmine our
stakes, re-set ‘them, and the plowman plows it out. We test it
with the level, and correct the errors with the plow.

*See Fig. 1. Peach Tree ‘Hill. ®

36 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

The plowman, after finishing the first set of rows, has gone
on the other side of his guide row, and is laying off by it. We
’ watch and try his work with the level, and see that he keeps his
distance. We find directly that the south end of his rows ter-
minate at the fence, and the north ends at the second guide row
just layed off, and unless his rows are ona level they will pour the
water into this guide row, or by the side of the fence.

When he finishes this work he goes below the second guide row
and lays off by that, and we go twenty steps below it, and lay
off a third guide row. ‘To do this we find two gullies to cross
made on the side of a fence that has been removed.* They have
a ridge betweeen them, on which the fence stood.

We call the hoe hands, not far off, shrubbing a ditch bank,f
and send for a plowman with a turning plow, who is plowing in
the first set of straight rows laid off by the eye ; before he arrives
the hoe hands have nearly filled the gully with shrubs, pieces of
rails, turfs of grass, and the like substances, and have them ready
for the dirt. The plowman goes up and down the ridges, and
turns the dirt on and towards the gullies, and the hoes drag it
on and fill up the gully with soil, trampling it down hard at the
same time. This job done we dismiss them for the present.

Unless there is a good reason to commence laying off this
third guide row at the fence, we commence it at the head, or be-
ginning of the gullies, and lay off the row on one side, and then
return to the starting place, and lay off on the other side of it.

To do this work well we first span the gullies and get the
level to start with. We then lay off from the guide stake. We
left the plowman on the lower side of the second guide row.
When the plowman has laid off five or six rows by the second
guide row he lays off his third guide row. As he crosses the
gullies he turns up the rows a little, and crosses in a curve, or
else after the dirt settles in the gully the water might accumu-
late in it and make a break. This row is examined for correc-
tion, and corrected. ‘The plowman now lays off rows on the up-
per side of this guide row until his work meets. If there be any
short rows they are between the two last guide rows.

We go below thirty paces, and lay off a fourth guide row.
This will be sufficient for this hill-side. The plowman lays it
off, plows a few rows above it, and then a few rows below the

* Gullies should not be allowed by the side of fences. The fences, if possi-
ble, should be placed on level land even if they are crooked. So-sbould all
plantation roads. All gullies should be stopped and filled up several days
before the land is horizontalized in order that they may receive a rain or two
to settle the dirt in them.

{ Ditch banks and fence corners should be shrubbed, and all sprouts on the
field grubbed up before the horizoutaler goes to work, so that his work be not
delayed. .

7

\
ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 37

third guide row, to throw the short rows between the two sets of
rows. The balance of the rows are laid off by the last guide row.
They get shorter and terminate between the angle of the ditches.*

SECTION XXV.

HORIZONTALING THIS HILL BY THE 2p LEVEL
METHOD, WITH GUARD-DRAINS.

If we desired, we could make two guard-drains on this hill-
side. One where the second guide-row is, at the brow of the
hill, and the other where the fourth guide-row is, at the head of
the gullies. We select these places, because the rows are more
liable to break at the brow of the hill, and because the gullies
have made breaks already. The first guard-drain would have
less land to protect than the second, and its dimensions can be
less than the second. We would make it ten inches deep, twelve
inches wide, with a fall of one inch to the span of the level.
The second drain would be twelve inches deep, and eighteen
inches wide, and varying from one to three inches fall to the span
of the level. To lay off the first one, we would commence at the
south fence, at a certain place we desire to discharge the water.
We might pass it under the fence into my neighbor’s field, but
as he has no corresponding drain, we let it go down the fence on
our side.

We lay it off just as we do a circular row, except we give an
inch fall, every span of the level, and turn up the end at the
west fence to catch any water that might descend by the side of
the fence.

To lay off the second drain, we commence at the head of the
gullies, because if we commence at the fence, the drain might
not pass them at that point, and to stop all breaks, gullies and
washes, we must remove the cause first, and the cause is usually
above the commencement, and sometimes some distance to one
side of the break. It requires a skillful eye to detect it some-
times. We commence at the gullies and give two inches fall,
and proceed to the south fence, and at the fence we give three
inches the last span, to prevent the mouth of the drain from
choking with trash and sand. We return to the gully, and run

* See Fig. 1. Peach Tree Hill. This hill was laid off by this method in
1851, and the gullies stopped in two years. As the rows next to the main
ditch held water too long in the spring of the year, some of them have been
altered so as to give a little fall to them, to empty the water at the fence, and
then into the ditch. The hill-side was plowed as deep as one good mule could
do it, and it has improved and produces much better than it did the first year
with the same management.

38 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

the other way to the west fence, and the first span we give one
and a half inches fall towards the south fence, then one inch the
next span, and continue that fall to the end, and turn it up
two inches at the fence. We have a drain row with a fall of
from one inch at the west fence to two, and lastly, three inches
fall at the other end. The gully by the fence takes the water
into the ditch below.

The drains having been laid off and staked, so as to know
them, we lay the rows off on a level as above stated for No. 1.
Should they break, the guard-drains will arrest the water, and
- remove it when desired. ‘This will suffice to explain this method.

SECTION XXVI.

HORIZONTALING THIS HILL BY THE GRADING
METHOD.—No. 1.

Suppose we desire to lay off this hill with a fall to the rows,
without the aid of drains or hill-side ditches, we would com-
mence as we did for the level method, and lay off the top of the
hill on a level, as we find it inconvenient to discharge the water
up there. Then we would lay off the first guide row at the brow
of the hill as was done for the level method, but give a fall of
one inch to the span of the level towards the south fence. We
would lay off a second guide row, where the third guide row is
for the level method, at the head of the gullies, and give the same
fall as the one above. One more guide row would be sufficient.
In plowing out the rows, the plowman lays off a few rows below
the first and then a few above the second guide rows, so that the
short rows may be midway between them, if any. Now, if the
short rows were to empty the water into any one of the long rows,
it would cause that row to wash into a gully. So we plow them
ona level. The same disaster would happen if the short rows
were to terminate with a fall with a guide row. To avoid that
mischief, we lay off long rows by the ouide rows, so as to throw
the short rows between the long rows as above ‘mentioned.

The balance of the land can be plowed by the third guide row.
But we find that they will terminate at the ditch, and there is
no provision made for the exit of the water. We have either to
lay off a drain by the side of the ditch, or lay off two rows next
to the ditch and parallel to it, and make a drain of the water
furrow of the second row next to the field. This is the best
plan if the land adjoining the ditch is higher than the adjoining
land. The graded rows then empty into that furrow, and it is

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 39

conveyed to the gully by the side of the fence, and from thence
into the main ditch.

But should the drain by the side ve the ditch have too much
fall to admit of the above plan, we should have to adopt some
other plan to receive the water and to discharge it into the ditch.
We should have to plow all the rows in the angle of the ditches
on a level, or cut a guard-drain from the point ‘of intersection of
the ditch and south fence, to the north ditch, and give two inches
fall to it, and empty the rows in the angle of the ditches into it.

SECTION XXVII.

HORIZONTALING THIS HILL BY THE 2p GRADING
METHOD.

We have to lay off the drains, and then the rows with the
same fall as that of the drains. Two drains in the same places
as those for the level culture would answer. We would dis-
charge the water at the same fence, and with a grade from one to
two inches fall and twelve inches deep and fifteen inches wide.
The rows are laid off by the drains as above stated. The first
rows above and below the drains should be five feet distant to
give room for the channel and bank of the drains. All short
rows should be between the long ones, and plowed on a level. If
they terminated into a long one they would wash it, and if they
terminated in the drain below they would fill it up with sand.

SECTION XXVIII.

HORIZONTALING THIS HILL BY THE 3p GRADING
METHOD.

The rows by this method must discharge the water into the
ditches We cannot explain it so well here, unless we suppose
the main ditches and the gully by the side of the fence to act
as substitutes for the hill-side ditches. The drains are laid off
as by the preceding method, but with more fall, to convey the
water off more speedily. We then run the rows with a fall of
one and a half inches into the ditches. Many of them will ter-
minate at the ditches and many elsewhere. The liability to
wash the land, and the trouble of discharging the water, would
make it objectionable on this hill-side, but the method might an-
swer a better purpose on other places.

40 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

SECTION XXIX.
HORIZONTALING THIS HILL BY THE 41H METHOD.

The straight row method could be applied here ; and with
the protection of hill-side ditches with three inches fall to them,
the land would not sustain as much damage as it has done by
the same method without the ditches. For hill-side ditches
would do for this hill-side, with a fall of from three to five inches,
eighteen inches deep, and twenty-four wide. They must be
capacious, to receive and retain the sand and water. After they
are laid off and staked, the plowman sets his stakes, and plows
up and down hill, In cultivating, the plowman has to raise his
plow over the banks of the ditches as he passes them. This is
troublesome, and he is likely to plow down the banks. This
method would do much mischief to this hill ina few years, and
cause much labor to keep the drains clear, and the banks up.
It would be very objectionable to this kind of land.

SECTION XXX.

LAYING OFF GUARD-DRAINS AND HILL-SIDE
DITCHES WITH THE RAFTER LEVEL.

A skillful horizontaler can lay off these drains very well, with
an engineer’s, and other levels of simple construction, but, as
we write more especially for the instruction of new beginners of
the art, we shall use the rafter level. We will select the Tri-
angular Ridge, in the same field for operations. It lies north
and south, near two hundred yards long, the apex of the triangle
being east, and the base west, about one hundred and fifty yards
wide. The ridge inclines south, east and west, and the water
naturally flows south, south-east, and south-west. It is bound-
ed on the east by a fence, on the west by a ditch, on the north
by a ditch, and on the south by a flat and drain.

We take the level and go on the ridge where the greatest slope
south begins, and the greatest expansion east’ and west takes
place, more properly, where the ridge begins to break up, and
spread out into the flat, south, west, and east. We set the level
across the backbone of the ridge, and find the exact level, and
stick a stake down by the side of the plumb line, called the me-
dium stake. We now go east and place the hind foot by the
side of the stake, and move the forefoot until the plumb-line
settles at the half inch mark of fall on the graduated bar; we
then move the level, and put the hindfoot exactly where the

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING. 41

forefoot stood, and move the forefoot until the plumb-line set-
tles at three-quarters of an inch fall on the bar; we move it
again, and repeat the same movements until we get to two and
a half inches fall, aud continue that fall to the last span of the
level, and give it three inches fall; we finally turn down the
level to the corner of the fence to six inches fall, so as to give
the drain a sufficient curve to catch the water descending in a
gully by the side of the fence, and convey it out without break-
ing the bank of the ditch. Wereturn then to the medium stake,
and proceed exactly in the same way for this part of the drain,
as we did for the preceding part, until we get to the wet flat
bordering the ditch, and from thence to the ditch we give three
inches fall, and turn down the line, so that it may enter the
ditch at an acute angle, to keep it from being choked at its
mouth.

In laying off this line, we stick a long cane every sixth, and a
short one at every third, span of the level. We now lay down
the level and examine the line. We find the stakes standing
irregularly, some out and some inside of the line, rather zigzag.
We re-set them by the eye, and order the plowman to follow us
with the scooter plow. We walk from stake to stake and just
ahead of the mule, (who will soon learn to follow,) and leave
them for him to knock down and the little boy to pick up.
When we reach the end, at the ditch or fence, the plowman waits
until we examine, with the level, his furrow, to see if it is cor-
rect ; if there be any deviations from a correct and regular fall,
we mark the places and direct the plowman to run them over.
When it is done right, he takes the hill-side plow and retraces
the line, throwing the furrow down hill, and thus continues
throwing two or three more furrows in the same manner, and the
hoe-hands drag out the dirt and form an embankment, making
it higher at the fence and ditch, as the danger of its breaking ie
at those places. The plowman runs two or more furrows in the
drain from each end up to the one-inch grade, and stops at that
point, as it is deep enough there. When the ditch is finished,
it will vary in depth from the medium stake to the ditch and to
the fence, from six to eighteen inches deep, and from eighteen to
twenty-four inches wide.*

As the wet flat, bordering the ditch the whole length of the
ridge, needs draining, and as the land has been cross-plowed,
and cut into ruts by the plow and water, we conclude to

* See Fig. 1, H. S. D. Triangular Ridge.

49 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

SECTION XXXI.

HORIZONTAL IT WITH THE GRADING METHOD,
NO. 3,

With a fall to the rows of one inch to the dry land and three
inches to the flat.

We will commence and lay off a guide row where the wet and
dry land joins at the hill-side ditch, and run north to the main
ditch. This row is nearly straight. The plowman lays off all
the rows by it to the main ditch in the wet land, with the same
fall, four feet apart. We go to the medium stake, and lay off a
row north, on the backbone of the ridge, and find it varies but
little from a straight line, and terminates at the north angle of
the ridge at the ditch, and give it a fall from that point to the
hill-side ditch of one inch to the span of the level. The plow-
man now lays off the rows on each side of this row by it, to the
first guide row to the fence. We see that itis done correctly, and
put in a short row occasionally, to keep the correct and regular
erade. In cultivating this ridge. we have had to make a few
water furrows across the rows on the wet flat with the plow, ‘to
drain it quicker during heavy showers. This is all the trouble
we have had with this ridge since it was horizontalized.

SECTION XXXII.
GUARD-DRAINS.

Below this hill-side ditch we have made four guard-drains,
two on the east side of the ridge, and one on the west, the first
one about fifty yards from the ditch, and the second one thirty
yards below that one, both nearly parallel to the ditch. The
first one about half the length of the ditch, and the second one
not quite so long as the first ; both have a grade of from one to
three inches, twelve inches deep at the outlet, and six inches
deep at the heads and fourteen inches wide.*

The one on the west side of fhe ridge is straight and the lower
end of it is a double drain, receiving and discharging the water
on both sides of it into the main ditch.t

The two first are laid off in the same manner commencing at
the fence and proceeding up into the field.

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING, 48

The fourth drain we commence at the hill-side ditch, into which
the drain discharges at the north end, and curves up and down,
and then up and down again, to the main ditch south, and just
before it reaches the main ditch it divides into two, separated
merely by the bank. The middle of the E connects with a drain
that leads to the ditch, making three outlets for this drain, one
into the hill-side ditch, and two into the main ditch.

We need not describe the laying off and constructing of
these guard-drains, as it is the same as for the hill-side ditches.

We might write many more pages on this subject, to illustrate
the minutie of this beautiful art, but as the Hssay is already
much longer than we desire, we refrain, but will illustrate it by
a couple of figures for the examination and study of those who
take sufficient interest in the art, and hope to make it sufficiently
intelligible for the understanding of our readers.

44 DR. N. T. SORSBY’S ESSAY

Fic. 1—GIN-HOUSE FIELD, 45 ACRES.

EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURE.

0. Straight rows by the eye.

1. Level Method, > ~ - - No. 1.
2. “ am = a = - Coro
3. Grading Method, - ag Paue aE
4. « « = ie a = soo:
5 « “4 Bs 7 a a aS 8
6 6 - “ 4. Not illustrated.
Ny 1 3969

AD

ON HORIZONTAL PLOWING AND HILL-SIDE DITCHING.

Fic. 2—BRICK-YARD FIELD, 10 ACRES.

HIKNN

EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURE.

1. Level Method, - - - - - - No. 1.
2. Grading Method, - - - - - =" eg,
3. ce cc Ps 7 ia = _ 7 “ BY

The gully was stopped in two years.

Norr.—Since the foregoing was published, I have seen the following, which
settles the introduction of the horizontal culture in the United States on Mr.
Jefferson :

“The practice of horizontal cultivation, or ‘circling’ the rows, so as to keep
them ona level on billy and rolling land, was introduced by the late Mr.
William Dunbar, of the Forest, in Adams County, Mississippi, (as Mr. Dun-
bar is known to have stated in conversation in the town of Washington, in
1810,) at the suggestion of Mr. Jefferson, of whom Mr. Dunbar was a corre-
spondent for many years, when the former was President of the United States.
Having observed when in France, this economical manner of cultivating the
mountain sides, Mr. Jefferson recommended it as well adapted to our broken
lands. The practice was tardily adopted, and, like all similar innovations on
established usages, met at first with its share of ridicule.”—From Waile’s
Report on the Geology and Agriculiure of Mississippi.

_ (See the reference in the “‘ History or Horizontat Cuuturg,” page 9.)

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