Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-07-25
WORN OUT LAND.

In the State OF South Carolina there ls q
vast amount of land which has been rendered
worthless by an extravagant mode of culture
In some of the upper counties of the State,
nearly one half of the cleared land is washed
into gullies. The hillsides were run in cotton
year after year as long as they lasted, and
now they are turned out as useless. The re-
suits are two-fold. The land is worn out and
valueless, and the owners are not worth cent
more than they were when they commenced to
cultivate it. In many cases, not one dime has
been laid up with which to purchase other
land The owner of these lands is growing
poorer and poorer every year. His landed
estate is decreasing in value every crop that
is produced upon it. This ought not to bethe
case. By proper mode of cultivation, land
will increase in fertility every year, and con-
sequently increase in value. This can never
be accomplished so long as the hill-sides and
rolling lands are planted IN corn and cotton.
No system of hillside bitches will prevent this
kind of land from washing away. By a law
of nature it is obliged to give way before the
rains of summer. Ifit is not washed into gull
lies, all the substance will be washed out of it
in few years. This is in perfect harmony
with the principles Unnatural philosophy and
in fact it is demonstrated to be the case. On
an average our rich and fertile hill-sides do
not last more than ten years when cotton or
corn is exclusively cultivated. At this rate
the globe itself would not last the cotton farm
ers long.
The way to prevent this wear and tear of
the hills is to SOW them in grass. This will do
for the hills what no bitches can be made to
to do. In western Virginia there are hills so
steep that COW can not ascend them, but by
a tedious, circuitous route. Ifthesehills were
worked in corn or cotton for but few years,
they would be worthless. AS it is, they are
regarded as of great value. As soon as these
hills are cleared and one crop is taken of,
then they are sown down in grass and in
few wears sod is formed which effectually
holds the soil. Instead of getting poorer, it
gets richer every year. The same thing can
be done in South Carolina. There are enough
of worn out hills in South Carolina, if they
were reclaimed and sown in clover, to feed
thousands of sheep, COWS and hogs. Those
who have made the experiment say that an
acre of good land we'll prepared in the spring
or full, and then let grow up in common crab
grass, will pay its owner better than oplantit
in cotton, work it we'll and make good crop.
The expenses in the one case are comp mparatively
nothing; in the other they are enormous. The
expense of making the cotton is very great
and the exhaustion of the land incalculable.
We are convinced that the theory will hold
good in practice when the experiment is made
upon hill-sides.
Some men tell US that corn and cotton do
not exhaust land. This theory comports bad
ly with facts A blind man who can not see
gullies might be induced to give credence to
such declaration; but it is hard to under
stand how any man with two good eyes could
believe such statement. In this case, as in
every other, facts are stubborn things. The
true policy of South Carolina farmers is to
cultivate the level lands and SOW the hill.sides
in clover and grass. Such system of farm
ing would do wonders towards renovating the
soil and replenishing the purses of its owners