The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-04-15
Aadersots guteltigstresr.
FARMERS COLUMN.
Bsy" Communications from oar Farmers
on any matter pertaining to Agriculture,
are respectfully solicited for this column.
AN ESSAY on TERRACING,

VI Z ICtjCCHutJ oVteCttSV yN' ''''O OO'N~"''''
AN ESSAY on TERRACING,
Read by Col. B. p. Browne, Before the
storeville Farmers Club, and Published
by Request.
Mr.. President and Brethren Of Store.
viNc Farmers Club:
In obedience to your command I un.
dertake to essay the subject Of Terracing,
regarding its relations to Agriculture;
also, as to the benefits of the sytem COM
pared with that of hillside dtching, the
mode that has been practiced in this
country for the last half century.
Terracing literally means land making,
from the Latin word Terra, the earth,
and vas practiced by the ancients to level
and beautify their gardens.
The gardens of the Tuilleries, the
royal palace grounds in Paris, compris-
ing sixty seven acres, are made beautiful
by terraces, bordered by flower beds, tall
hedges and fiue groves of horse chest
nut trees, beneath whose grateful shades
kings and princes walk to recreate them
selves. They also abound in our own
cities, making fairy grounds about the
mansions of prosperous citizens. So the
system is no new and untried thing, ex.
cept to us in applying it to our farms.
The object and theory of terracing
with us is, to so bank up and gradually
level our lands that most of the rain
falling on certain areas will be retained
thereon and be absorbed by the soil,
thereby gathering and accumulating the
fertilizing elements brought down from
the clouds. This theory, on first view,
may seem absurd but when we call to
mud certain small plots of ground with.
in our knowledge, lying perfectly level,
and so situated that no water can run on
to them from other sources, we see that
these lands do not wash away, but retain
and absorb all the rains that fall directly
upon them, accumulating and building
up the soil. Our gardens, for instance,
if made on perfect level, and most of
them are, if not originally, they gradu-
ally become so by drift banking up
against the fence on lower side, thus
practically becoming terraced, and we
all know what factors these little eighth
acres are to the support Of whole families.
But some are ready to put in an interro'
gative objection and say, "But how can
We make gardens of our whole farms 2"
To which there is but one answer, do it
just as you mado your gardens. Having
secured retention of the rainfall by ter
racing, little by little manure aud build
up the land, for this Godsent rain con-
tains those mysterious chemical reagents
that act upon the soil, unlocking the rich
nutriment of mother earth that feed your
plants, which in their turn feed you.
will further sustain this theory by
considering the annual rain fall, which
has been ascertained for this section to
be about thirty.six inches, which is an
| average of three inches per month.
From quarter to half an inch fall at
one time is considered a refreshing sea-
son for growing crops. If this be true
where is the impossibility of retaining
any ordinary rain that may fall on a
small area of ground, about such a
space as one terrace might occupy? On
the goth of March we had a rainfall of
near two inches. and my terraces, occu-
pying near twenty acres, although freshly
thrown up, held all the water, and were
not broken anywhere. On the 29th We
had six inch fall, producing food, as
we all know, yet my terraces were bro
ken in only a few weak places, the over:
plus of water that the ground could not
retain having passed out at the ends.
1t is the rapid accumulation Of water
rolling down the hill that make the floods
that wash away our lands, and inundate
our bottoms, filling the creek and rivers
with mud and sand, rendering these lands
unfit 70 produce the bountiful crops they
once did, when we had wood,uplands to
check the foods.
If every land owner would now prop
erly terrace his uplands he would moi
only get individual reward in reclaiming
the same, but there would result mutual
benefits to all in checking, to consider.
able extent, the disastrous floods that so
frequently destroy our bread crops on
the low lands. But unless all would do
it, this great: mutual benefit would not
be realized. When this subject is fully
appreciated there will be laws enacted
to govern the same.
Wish I had statistics showing the
amount in dollars and cents that has
been expended in this County alone, for
commercial fertilizers since the war. I
have no doubt that it would be enough
to buy out the whole County, towns,
farms and all. And where are they
all these commercial fertilizers? There
has been enough guano and stuff bought
and used from year to year to have made
Anderson County lands as rich as Peru,
and still we are poor and in debt; and
still buying fertilizers; and each years
supply is leached away into the streams
by the winter floods. Then where is the
remedy to correct this sapping eyil-this
prodigal waste of our substance?
This new system of terracing our up
lands must be our last hope-our only
salvation, and if so, why neglect SO great
salyation2 AS to hillside bitches, they
are but teaching troughs to carry away
our manures and soil in solution, unless
rim so near level that they will hold