Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-11-11
agricultural department
Original.l
SAVE YOUR LAND.

iOrgna.l
'' SAVE YOUR LAND.
Most of the worn out land in our country,
is the result of the careless manner in which
it has been cultivated. Fifty years ago, it
was the common practice to plow up and
down the hills. The result was a ditch, or
rather, a huge gulley, for every corn row.
This system was abandoned, and the plan Of
running, at short distances from each other,
bitches around the hills adopted. These
bitches were designed to carry off the accu-
mulating rains. The rows were then laid off
so that each one carried its water into the
ditch. This was thought to be great i'm
provement on the old system of blowing up
and down the hill. 1t is still practiced, but
it is far from being perfect. 1t has two grand
defects. The bitches, to subserve the purpose
for which they are designed, must have fall
enough to carry the water off rapidly. The
result is that in a few years they become i'm
passable. Instead of protecting the land
from washing into gullies, each hillside ditch,
itself, becomes gully. The rows being so
laid off that each one conveys its own water
into the ditch, is most pernicious practice.
The productive properties of the soil are con-
veyed, by each row, into the ditch, and by the
ditch into the nearest water course. The sys-
tenn is kind of teaching process. In time, it
as effectually drains the soil of its fertilizing
properties. as the common farm ash-hopPer
serves to drain the ley out of ashes.
We will not undertake to say that hillside
bitches are never useful but, in the end, un-
less laid out with great Judgment, they do
more harm than good. To prevent land from
washing, it should be broken deep, and every
furrow run perfectly level. By level, we
mean so run that the water will not run in
any direction, but sink.
Analysis shows that every pound of rain
water contains one grain of ammonia, the &C.
tive principle of all our chemical fertilizers
If we could only save the rain, we would have
no need to buy guano. The best fertilizer in
the world, is that which falls from the clouds.
The difficulty is to retain it.
How FARMERS WIVES BREAK Down.
A woman tells this story to the Boston Cut
tivator, and we can testify of our own knowl-
edge that it is very sadly true: 81 can get
forty women to marry me, within fifty miles
of this village" said man to me, the other
day, "but l can't find a woman anywhere
who will come and help my wife, and she is
breaking down every day." Yes, breaking
down! Can any one look in her ashy white
face and not read the story, written there, of
hard work, in season and out of season? She
has four little girls-the eldest six years, the
Youngest three months. Her husband keeps
six COWS, and cultivates farm of hundred
acres, employing two hired men to aid him.
Three meals must be cooked daily for fami-
ly of seven, not counting the baby four chill
dren dressed and cared for; the milk of six
attended to, and butter made, while the week
ly washing and ironing must be accomplished
in some way. From four o'clock in the morn
ing until ten and sometimes eleven at night,
one pair of hands and one pair of feet per-
form this labor, and now the tired body rebels
and says: "This cannot be endured" OF
course extra aid is to be obtained easily in
midsummer, but it mig ght have been procured
early in the spring; it doubtless would have
been found had it been needed to assist in
mans work. Let me tell you of another
case: The farmer and his wife have three
children, all under eight years. He employs
two hired men, boarding them, and he keeps
washing and ironing, but that is all the assis.
tance the wife receives. excepting the few
steps the children can save her. She must
rise at o'clock and prepare breakfast, so
that the husband and the "hands'' can be in
the moving field by Eve o'clock. Every 9th
er day, however, one of the hired men remains
to do the churning for her; but this favor
was not allowed her until she had threatened
to call in the doctor, to declare to her hus-
band her inability to do such hard work.
Then it was reluctantly conceded, although
two forty.pound 6rkins of butter were packed
each week; for our farmer prides himself
upon his herd of cows-pure-blood Alder
neys-and sells his butter at the highest rates,
carefully depositing its proceeds in the bank,
and rarely giving his wife so much as FIVE
dollar bill of it. His last injunction to the
"hand" as he departs to the field is: John,
come just as quick as you can. Don't let
Mrs NJ. keep you for anything else. Hay
can't wait for woman's work" There are
dishes to wash, milk to skim, pans to scald,
beds to make, children to dress, baby to nurse,
rooms to sweep, and dinner to cook over the
boiling hot stove-and one woman to do it all.
FARM WAGEs-The Department of Agri-
culture has been investigating the fluctuations
in farm wages, and finds that the present av-
erage for the whole country is sl2.40 per
month, with board. This includes, Of course,
the black labor of the South, where from So
to s1O.75 is paid, South Carolina paying the
least In Massachusetts, $20.25 is obtained,
in Maine 1854, in Vermont 1887, in Penn
sylvania Sl6l0, in the prairie States, from
SIG to SIT, in the old "border States" sl2 to
S14, in California $3.50, and Wyoming s32.-
so. These wages are on contracts, by the
year; by the season the rate is somewhat
higher. There are great contrasts in the cost
and methods of harvesting and threshing.
South Carolina pays 10 cents bushel, or a
toll of every twelfth bushel for threshing by
fail, the New England States IL or 13 cents
for threshing with itinerant horse-powers, the
prairie States with large horse-powers about
7 cents, and California with steam-power less
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