The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-07-12

Your First consideration-How to Lay OFF Terraces
ond How to Maintain T~hem-Other Valuable Infor-
nation on the Subject.
Editors Progressive Farmer:
I have read a great deal in your able and valua-
BILE paper (Which with every issue gets better) on
the subject of deep blowing, which of course is
all good and right. But it seems to the writer
that there are other subjects connected with the
farm of as much Importance as deep blowing, if
not more important-especially the proper ter
racing of the farm so that the soil can be kept on
the field, so that there will be something to pillow
for. No amount of eight or ten inch blowing will
make a good farm if it is washed into gullies and
gals. No amount of deep blowing and p~ulveriz-
ing that can be done will bring back the top soil
that has been washed away through carelessness.
WHY TERRAoINa Is BETTER THAN DITCHING.
The proper thing to do is to start a system of
terraces on the farm. They are far better than
bitches of any kind, and much preferable, for they
can be worked over and better crops made of any.
thing growing ON the banks and in the bottoms
of them than any other part of the field. Not 50
with bitches, as the bottoms of the bitches are
washed out to hard pan, and the banks can't be
worked for fear of weakening them so the water
will break through. And often you can't drive a
wagon across them or pillow out to them, while
they carry off thousands of tons of soil each year
that could be kept in the fields with terraces prop
erly made. A ton of soil saved on the farm will
be more to future generations than the applica-
ton of a ton of guano is to the present genera
ton.
The idea of terraces is to keep the soil on the
field and to hold the water so that the land may
take it up, and therefore obtain from a good
shower a season that will last many days longer,
by being let off the field slowly, than if it were
carried off by idtches all at once.
YOU CAN TERRACE ANY FIELD.
Terraces can be run on any land, it matters
not how rolling or how broken, if the low places
are raised to a level or a little above a level of
the high places, and if one chooses to, he can
drop the fall a little towards the low places, and
in a few years have all the low places above the
terraces as level as any other part of the field.
As the sand fills the low places against the bank
of the terrace, take a shovel throw over to the
low place below, and in a few years the whole
field will have a different appearance. Then where
you once made only nubbins or nothing, you will
be getting the largest ears and best stalks, to say
nothing of the pleasure of working in such a
field. And instead of the soil being washed down
into the creeks and rivers, it is in the field where
it has made better crops and will continue to do
so. With a little care of the terraces it can be
kept for coming generations.
MAKING THE LEVEL AND LAYING oFF TERRACES.
There are several ways of making a level to
run terraces. You can take a piece of straight
edge 1 by 5, 10 or Is feet long, cut two pieces for
rests or feet to stand on the ground of equal
lengths (say 2H2 or 3 feet) and nail to the strip
above mentioned, having both to come to the top
edge of the strip. Then get the exact center of