The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1917-06-29

the wider benches because of the few
er terraces required and the fact that
1t Is more convenient to cultivate the
field in a few broad strips than in u
greater number of narrow ones. In
other words, they are willing to In
cur greater loss by erosion for the
sake of greater convenience In cult
walton.
Protection Against Erosion.
When constructed and maintained
properly, bench terraces give excel
lent protection against erosion. How
ever. many landowners object to this
terrace on account of the difficulty OF
moving farm machinery from one
bench to another, the necessity Of cul-
uvating each bench separately, this
loss of the land occupied by the I'm.
cultivated entertainments, and the
growth Of weeds and grass on the en-
bankment, which robs the adjacent
cultivated soil of its plantfOod and
tends to seed the entire field n weeds
and Objectionable grasses. These
reasons are sufficient to initiate
against the use of this terrace except
on steep slopes where no for'N of cul-
tivable terrace can be employed.
The best practice indicates that the
bench terrace should not be used on
slopes exceeding 20 per cent. How.
ever, they are actually in use on slopes
up to 80 per cent, with vertical In
terval Of s to 10 feet; but In such
instances the labor of cultivating the
narrow benches and of maintaining
the high entertainments is considerable
and it is believed that such slopes
could be devoted more proftably to
pasture or timber.
Narrow-Base LeveI-Ridge Terraces.
The narrow-base 1evel-ridge terrace
is used to a great extent throughout
the Piedmont region of the South. 1t
is essentially the first stage in the
construction of bench terrace, but
methods Of blowing are employed to
prevent 1t from developing into a ter
race of the bench type. 1t Is built usu-
ally 3 to feet wide at the base and
from one-half to l foot high. Where
these terraces are sodded heavily they
render satisfactory service on previ-
GUS soils and slopes not greater than
5 to 8 per cent. They should be
spaced from 2 70 feet apart in YER
teal distance. F., close spacing re-
duces the volume of water which col
lectS above the terraces, and the sod
ded surface prevents erosion Of the
terrace due to impounded water over
topping it.
This type of terrace is cheap to con-
struct, easy to maintain, and affords
a very convenient guide row in plow-
ing and planting. The principal OBJ
jections to It's use are (D the land oc-
cupied by the sodded terrace reduces
the total amount of tillable land In
the field; (2) the growth on the ter
race saps the strength from the adj
joining soil, resulting in a dwarfed
plant growth on either side of the ter
race; and (3) the weeds which often
are allowed to grow on the terrace
| tend to seed the entire field, and har-
Dor Objectionable insects in the win
ter. Owing to these objections, this
type of terrace is losing favor rapidly
among the most advanced farmers.
Some attempts have been made to
cultivate this terrace and thus dc
away with the Objectionable features
but such attempts have been attended
with very little success, except where
| the soil iS very sandy and conahle OF
absorbing most of the rain water as
fast as it falls. Where this water Il
not absorbed readily by the soil, Il
concentrates above the terrace, gener
ally breaks it and rushes down the
slope, usually washing deep gully
and carrying away large quantities o.
fertile soil.