The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1886-10-14
THOUGHTS FOR TIE MONTH.
SOME sEAsONADLE SUGGESTIONS FROM
HIGH AUTHORITY.

clio From an Intelligent Writer.
(W L. Jones In the October 'sOultvaror.")
The gathering and housing of summer
crops will for the present occupy most
Of the farmers time. The rewards OF
skill and labor are now his. He not only
has the pleasure of seeing his barns and
store-houses well filed, but also the ex-
quisite enjoyment of plans consum,
mated, of undertakings well executed.
His estimate of his own ability is posi-
bly, enhanced by the success of his
ventures, and he may reasonably and
properly indulge his pride little. For
six months or more he has been engaged
in an arduous campaign-onc calling for
unceasing attention, unfagging energy
and discriminating Judgment at every
turn-one in which difficulties were con
stantly to be met and overcomc-many
Scylla on the one side and Chary bdis
on the other to be shunned-one in
which cooperation with nature was to
be assiduously courted and antagonism
with her as carefully avoided. Now the
bent bow may be little relaxed, and
elasticity restored to the strained body
and mind.
While the plain, routine work of pick
ing cotton or breaking corn is SONG on,
there is no strain upon the mind, and it
can leisurely and quietly look back and
compare results with their causes. Like
the old soldier who recalls the battles he
fought, the farmer can now bring back
before him the eight },laccs" he was in,
the difficulties he had to meet, and how
ne met them, and calmly and judicially
discuss his management, whether good
or bad. If you had to do it over again,
are there any changes you would make?
Would you have broken your land deep
er and more thoroughly? Would you
have narrowed it moro before planting?
Would you have used the same quantity
and kind of manure? Would YOU have
worked your crops moro rapidly and
oftener in spring and early summer, and
gotten ahead of the grass before the
rains set in? If you had known it was
going to be a wet summer, would you
not have bestirrcd yourself little more?
Could you not have btst.mcd yourself
without knowing it was going to Do wet?
Is it not an excellent rule TO be always
prepared for the worst, though hoping
for the best? Don't you think now, in
view of your extended cotton field, with
their clean, bare surfaces ready to be
washed away, and their soils lcachcd by
the winter rains, that you planted rather
too much cotton? Would it not have
been better to have rested some of the
land you cultivated? 1t is quite remark
able that in country in which popula-
ton Is SO sparse, and land is SO super
abundant, we are as anxious to utilize
every foot of it every year as i'll coun-
tries where population is very dense and
the land can hardly support il. Our
Judgment is that If half the open land in
the country wGs rested every year (abso-
lutte rest, not sOwn in grnin) as much
would be made on the half cultivated as
is now made on the whole.
Have the arrangements you adopted
last winter and spring to prevent the
washing OF your land proved successful?
Didn't you make your terraces in the
early spring, just before the usual big
rainfalls occur, and did not these rains
strike them before they had time to get
compacted or get growth Of any kind
upon them to bind and hold thein, and
did not they get badly washed away?
Would 1t not be better to make terraces
on land when it is resting or in s,It.i,lc,
and do the work in the fall or early vim
ter, so that the terraces may get Settled
and tirm before tho heavy spring rains:
and would it not be well to sow the ter
races In rye OF wheat, as soon as they are
made, and get u growth upon them at
once? If terraces freshly made in stub
bic land should give way under heavy
rain, the land would not wash, because
it is compact and held by roots But
when terraces are made in spring, and
the land between them ploughcd, as is
generally the case, the washing becomes
excessive and disastrous if heavy rains
prevail We have found that on old
land, in which washes have already
started, it is extremely difficult to get
of some hillside ditches Our practice
in such cases is to run bitches lust as
one would do if he did not have tcrracine
in view, and then lay off terraces lust as
If there were no bitches present of
course jumping over and not filing the
bitches where the terraces cross them
After the terraces become we'll establish
ed and both incipient and old gullics arc
entirely filled up, the bitches may be
filled up if one thinks he can control the
water without them. On very rolling
land, where the disposition to wash is
very great, we find it best sometimes tC
run short secondary bitches between the
regular bitches. A secondary ditch will
run across from one ditch to the next
below, starting just below the dam of the
hTstand emptying into the one below
Placed just above an incipient wash {
small! secondary ditch will assist matori
any In stopping it, We cannot ioin the
afden6 advocates Ci terracing in whole
sale denunciations of hillside 7itcLoe
we ma the latter, at times, very usofn
may, Almost Indispensable. IF one
3cHt1deh StsgtS E16h fresh so land and there is ne
water may flow down upon I'm t. +o,rnUn mmlcl
alone may answer, but on ~ old 9oit"oG Iond
where washes have already started % thca
may be arrested and bernn"ro ollt2s u
stopped by judicious comb;notiinle11h b;ilehCi
bitches and terraces with more "oso on % o
moro quickly than by terracos 'o olonn %li,
Terraces are sometimes made foo INC
row; strip, at least two feet wide 10, !,
the middle of them should not be dc
turbed by the plow, but left firm an,
compact to resist the washing action G
water. After the terrace is we'll estah
Eshed il NAV be reduced in D,yi1tl,