The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1885-11-25
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT
sEAsoNABLE SUGGESTIONS.
how the Farmer May Proftably Use the
Present Time Of the Year.

How the Farmer May Proftably Use the
Present Time OF the Year.
1t is hardly necessary to urge the
prompt gathering aud housing of all
manured crops still remaining i'll the
field. The days will get shorter and
shorter, and the weather increasingly
cold and unpleasant; corn will waste
and cotton will drop on the ground
and become stained and trashy. Every
consideration prompts to energy and
diligence. A month hence the days
will be an hour shorter, and one-.enth
less work can be gotten out Ola laborer
than at present. Indeed, with our
present labor, it is becoming unprohla-
BILE to employ any more OF II than
one car help daring the winter months.
The negro is SO averse TO wet and
cold during that period il Is hard 10
get work GU, Of him. But for TINS,
there is much about farm which
could be done, and most conveniently
too during the winter. Almos; every
thing in the way of bettermeEts can be
attended 10 with more advantage then
than during the busy crop season.
Ditching, removing stumps and stones,
clearing and cleaning up, terraclng,
filing gullies, making lcrces acr9ss
bottoms, making farm roads, hauling
leaves for litter. making compostS,
and other like things, can receive at
tention without detriment to growing
crops. Such matters are generally
put off until spring, and then there
is hurrying, and rushing, and half
doing, to get them done and out of the
way, that preparations may be made
for summer crops. Very much of this
kind of werk mav be advantageously
done in November, if labor can be held
steadily to it; end where hands are
hired for the year, it ought to te done.
The farmer can give his whole at
tcntion to these matters-study and
plan and supervise closely. We find
that our presence is more imperatlvely
called for by this kind of work than
anv other on the farm. In routine
operations, trained hands can 3c pref
t. well, but in betterments repeated
exercise of judgment is called for at
almost every step.
We. talk much of improving our
lands by deep blowing, sowing peas,
heavy manuring, but what availeth
these if land is rolling, and the soil is
washed away as fast as it is deepened
or enriched. In sll efforts to improve
the soil, the arst step must be to hold
it-attention, study, ingenuity, must
all be directed to this point. Since
tecracing has acquired notoriety, hill
side ditching has been almost entirely
discarded. This may be we'll after
terraces have become firmly establish
ed, but anterior to this, whilst the ter
races are being made, and the loose
earth thrown up by the plow is easily
washed away, bitches will be decided
ly advantageous, especially if washes
have already begun. In heavy rains,
water acquires terrible momentum
down slopes that are long and steep,
if allowed 10 traverse the whole dis
tsnce; catch.it in a ditch before it has
had time to acquire volume and vcloc-
itv. Make the ditch large and deep
enough to hold the water in the heav-
lest rains; don bea timid about this,
fearing your ditch will become a gul-
ley. With the greatest fall given hill
side bitches, it is an easy matter to
get them filed up after they have
served their purpose. Every one who
has had much experience with hill
side bitches knows that the trouble -
to keep then open. Brisrs, weeds,
ETC., falling into them are constantly
catching earth and makcGG q soil IN
their bottoms, npou rlich spring up
grasses and wees; these catch more
soil and -socn the ditch breaks over,
unleszz often cleaned out. In crossing
them with the plow dirt and trash fall
in to such q degree that it is next to
impossible to keep them open when
the plowman does not turn at the
ditch. Where rows are run on level
one years breaking and cultivation of
the land will completely obliterate
ditch that is crossed.
A poorly made, inadequate ditch is
worse than no ditch, but a properly
made, large ditch has one decided
drawback: especially on steep slopes
the water falling into it from above
tends to start little gullies on the upper
edge of the ditch; and these if not
checked tend to elongate up the hill
in other words bitches tend to gener-
ate guliies. Fortunately this can be
obviated by leaving an uuploWed strip
along the upper edge Of the ditch.
Weeds and grass growing upon this
strip binds its soil 50 that water will
not cut through it, but checked, in its
flow, deposits its burden of soil on
said strip and quietly percolates through
This strip should be net less thsn three
feet in width. Where this precsution
has not been taken, and gullies have
started along the upper edge Of bitches,
it wonld be we'll to- put trash of SOME
kind i'll every one of these, weighing
it down with rocks. A perfect edge
to the ditch caa thus be soon estab-
lished, and the unplowed strip will
take care of it afterwards. Don't
defer looking after these apparently
little things; stitch in time will save
more than afterwards.
Where moderate guliies have al
ready formed haul leaves, straw or
trash of any kind and put in them-a
little brush at intervals, or row of
stobs placed across them will serve to
keep the leaves from being washed
out of them. If this is done, and
plowmen made to lifttheir plows overin
crossing these washes, they will very
soon fill up. More are less dirt and
trash will drop into them from the