Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-05-24
FARM AND HOME.
Stop the Gullies.

Millions of dollars worth of soil is an.
nually carried to the gulffrom the Mississip
pi Valley for want of alittle attention from
farmers. Scarcely farm of any size can
be found upon which there are not great
deep washes through which the very life
blood of the soil is trickling away drop by
drop. Such places are not only leaks to
the farmers capital, but are eyesores that
destroy the beauty of the farm. They can
be easily checked by first making a dam
near the end of them so that the soil may
find a lodgment. Upon this let herds
of grass be sown and some plum bushes
planted. Then let a second dam be built
higher up and the grass sown and bushes
planted. Let this be continued until the
beginning of the gully is reached.
An ounce of preventive, however Is bet
ter than q pound of cure. If the land is
well and deeply plowed and pains taken
to check the first beginning of washes
there will never be any necessity for con-
structing dams, or planting bushes. We
know fields that have been cultivated for
half n century, and although they are very
rolling, yet not sign of wash is discover
able in them. They have been SUBSIDIZED
from time to time, and plowed deeply
every year when in cultivation, so that the
topsoil was not washed away with every
heavy rain. Occasionally one of these de-
amount of damage by carrying away the
SOIL but such storms can no more be guard
ed against in taking steps for the preserva-
ton of our lands than the great hurricanes
that sweep away houses and cities, can be
guarded against in the construction of
houses. We were painfully impressed
with the necessity of checking little wash
es, in walking, few days since, over q
field that we knew twenty years ago. At
that time, there were a few small gullies
making through it to large pond. They
did not exceed two or three feet in depth.
The leading ones are now from ten to
fifteen feet deep, and from twenty to twen-
ty-five wide, and great numbers of smaller
ones make into these of a depth so great,
that the work required to stop them would
be worth five or six times the land. From
twenty acres or more the soil has been
swept down these washes into place that
it can never be of any benefit And the
amount of damage does not stop here. A
large amount of stock was running on these
twenty acres, and their dropings are taken
by every rain to the pond to contaminate
its waters, and to lesson the products of
the farm. Now the owner of this farm
is prosperous man. His crops are large
and income great, and in justice to him, it
must be said, that this field was past re-
demption when he came into possession of
the property. But the thought suggested
itself whether ii would not add greatly to
the value of the property to eXpend a
thousand dollars or more in retaining a
field as far gone as even this one. The
saving in manure would more than pay
the interest on the expenditure, and the
improvement in the appearance of his
would be worth the amount expended.
Our farmers do not pay attention enough
to the preservation of their real estate.
The low price of land in the early settling
Of the State induced the pernicious habit
of clearing and wearing out the lands, and
custom has been transmitted from father
TO son. The time is at hand when such at
system must be abandoned, if not from
principle, at least from policy. Good
lands and timbered lands are becoming
too scarce for such a system to be longer
practiced. Take care of the land and fight
the gullies.