Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1858-09-08

If the bitches have TOO much deeceafy the danger
ia tbst they will wash into gues; istoo Itlle the
water may accumolate in them and break over.
These .re the extremes 70 be avoided M
4. According to my experiencs, the time 81 grest-
est danger to your field in this mode OF cultivation,
is at the first working Of the crop, for then the beds
are necessarily broken down in great measure II
Just at this period very great rain shall FAIL you
will probably be injured some., But even then not
90 much .s if your field was ploughed up and down
hin, because all the burrows are still upon level
and thsswater does not accumulate to ruinons ex.
tent At any one point And the damage will usual
" be avoided entirely by carefully cleaning out the
water burrows at this working. And the period is
Of short DURATION for at the next working the dirt is
thrown back again and the beds restored.
8. Now, Sir, am aware that many persons OBJ.
iect to this system of cultivation out and out and
say in round terms it will not answer. Of such per
sons am inclined to think that few have ever real
" given it fair trial They have not practiced the
mode here laid down. They have used m imperfect
instrument in eveng their land, have tried to do
it by the eye without q level at all or they have
endeayored to make each water furrow carry off its
surplus water, empty It into the bitches, by
giving the beds, water burrows and ditches all the
same uniform descending grade
All these expedients have failed, because in nine
ty-nne cases out of one hundred in field OF any
extent the surface of the ground is too unequal to
allow any Of these modes, especially the last to be
performed with accuracy and perfection. Let all
such directors first try Horizontal Ploughng and
Hillside Dtching as here described and afterwards
give their judgment upon it.
CONCLUSION.
No single year can perhaps be remembered when
land in North Carolina has suffered from washing
rains, more generally more immensely, than du-
ring the present year: The present year has furn-
shed the severest test of the efficacy of this mode
of cultivation that have ever known. There was,
especially just in this vicinity on the night of the
third of May, immense fall Of rain, which pro-
duced greater ruin than I have witnessed from a
single rain at any time within twenty years. And
this was followed through the season by several
other terribly washing rains. And yet my plough
ing stood the whole without injury. Full fifty acres
of my corn field was land so rolling, that there is
not spot in it from which the descent, in the d.
rection of the greatest descent is not ten feet in
one hundred yards. 1t was broken up in the fal!
and winter, five and half inches deep, in beds five
and half feet apart, with first rate pillow which
turns furrow of eleven inches.
This field, with beds on a dead level, and hillside
bitches having a descent of two inches in twelve
feet, went through this year of extreme trial with
out wash. In some places the water trckled over
the beds where the level had become imperfect,
pecally in the short roos, but soon disposed OF
in the burrows below, which were more perfect AID
thus all damage was prevented.
You will observe that have described this system
Of cultivation adapted to my own lands, and
therefore cannot say that precisely the same result
would be gained in lands Of different quality.
But will venture to say, that deep ploughing,
combined with this system, will prevent any lands
from washing; unless it is attempted to make corn,
cotton or tobacco for successive years upon the
field and then the land losing its cohesiveness
will almost certainly wash under any treatment
With great esteem,
Your ob't servant,
J. W. NORWOOD.