Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1876-03-09
AgritultnraI Repartmeat.
(Original.]
LAYING OFF ROWS.


LAYING OFF ROWS.
There are some things, which, in themselves
may not be regarded as of very much import
ance; but when taken in connection with other
things, it is difficult to estimate their import
auce. The hair-spring of a watch, for exam
pie, is but small amount of steel, beaten OF
drawn out into particular shape and tenn
pered in particular way. tits little thing,
and is worthless only for the hair-spring of a
watch. As hairspring it may be good or it
may be bad. A good hair-spring will not
make a watch otherwise bad, good; but a
bad hair-spring will make watch otherwise
good, a bad time-keeper.
The laying off of rows in which to plant
corn, cotton, or any other crop that is planted
in rows, is but little thing in itself 1t con-
Germs no one but the farmer. AS there is a
right and wrong way of doing every thing,
it will be taken for granted that rows may be
laid off right, and they may be laid off wrong.
To know how to lay ofFrows properly, and to
put this knowledge into practice, will not
make man good farmer; but no man can
be regarded as good farmer who does not
lay off his rows correctly. The man whose
experience in farming consists in having rid
den along the road and looked over into the
fields on which crops we're growing, may con-
clude that any man of ordinary sense, can, on
first trial, lay off the rows in any field cor
rectly. There are great many things that
look easy, but are hard. Ifany man thinks
he is farmer by intuition, or born black
smith, let him take hold of the plow-handles
and attempt to draw straight furrow, or let
him 90 to the blacksmith shop and attempt to
make horse.shoe.nail. If he will make
tc.h these experiments in immediate success
ion, he will be very apt to conclude that his
intuition bump is small. Men may be born
poets; but farmers have to be made. This
being true; to be able to lay off rows correctly,
is the result of experience. Still, as in every
other work that the farmer is called to per-
form, principle underlies the whole, and
working up to, or in accordance with this
principle, is to lay off a row correctly.
In laying off. rows, two things should be
taken into consideration. First, the saving
of the land; and, second, the comfort and
profit in cultivating the crop. Our country
is billy country. Every one knows that if
the rows are, to use farmers phrase, "run
up and down the hills" that the soil will, in
a few years, all be washed away. Each wa
ter furrow will make gulley. The up and
down hill system of laying off rows has long
since been abandoned. Farmers found out it
vas wrong. Experience taught them an i'm.
portant lesson.
The next plan adopted was to so run the
rows that each one would carry its own wa
ter. This, at first sight, seems to be the
proper plan; but it is not. Each row, in this
case, acts as teaching trough, which carries
off all the fertile properties Of the soil. 1t
may not carry off, in one year, or even in two,
the substance of the soil, but it will, event
ually.
On all undulating lands, the proper way is
to lay off the rows 80 that the water will not
run at all. If the ground is thoroughly
ploughed and kept in loose state, there is
less danger of washing when the rows are
laid off in this way, than any other. Ground
plowed as deep as it should be plowed,
will absorb almost any rain. The danger is
that the water may not be absorbed by the
ground, and may accumulate at a particular
point.
The next thing to be considered in laying
off rows, is the comfort in cultivating the
crop and the profit resulting to the cultivator.
1t may be thought that the laying off of the
rows can have nothing to do with the comfort
of him who cultivates the crop. 1t may be
thought that it is just as easy to cultivate a
crop when the rows are laid off in one way,
as in another. This is not the case. A crop
is much more easily cultivated when the rows
are straight, than when they are crooked. By
straight rows, We do not mean that they are
mathematically straight-that is, the short
est distance from one point to another; but
that they are free from zigzags. They may
be curved rows, if the curves are regular.
Unless this is the case the plowman has to be
on the constant lookout for struggling stalks
These out of line stalks in constant danger
from the foot of the plow animal, the single
tree, or the plow ITSELF The greater the num-
Der of these struggling stalks, the more diff
cult is the work of cultivation and the less
the yield, for the greater will be the amount
of them destroyed. Another thing to be at
tended to in laying off rows is their uniform
width apart. All the rows should be the
same distance apart, at every point in their
length. 1t is bad business to have some rows
three feet apart, others four, and some again
only two. Worse than this, again, is to lay
off the rows so that the distance between any
two of them is at one point three feet, at an
other two, at another four, and at another
six. The narrow part of the row will be
plowed to death before the wide part is
plowed enough. Any man can see that there
is great waste of time and labor by having
rows laid off in this worse than careless man
ner.
On perfectly level land the rows should be
mathematically straight. Each stalk of corn
or cotton should cover its fellow. In rows
properly laid of, either on level land or on
hillsides, there is beauty which delights the
beholder; whilst rows laid out so as to con-
form to all the crooks and turns, wiggles and
MARBLES of the mocking- bird song, is perfect
lv abominable.