556 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



OPEN DITCHES OPEN TO OBJECTIONS. 



They carry off surface wash and fertility. They are in the way in cul- 

 tivating, often cutting the field into small irregular patches and making 

 short and point rows. They are liable to become obstructed with weeds or 

 to wash out gullies if there is much fall. They occupy valuable ground 

 and necessitate turn rows on each side that might be utilized to grow crops. 

 They are expensive to keep in repair. Weeds giow on their sides and they 

 carry hurrs and weed seeds from place to place. Wherever possible large 

 tile should be used to take their places. It is often better to lay the line 

 of tile a little to one side of the open ditch so that the loose dirt will not 

 be washed from over the tile. 



Large open ditches that have been tiled should never be entirely filled 

 but should be left shallow and made five times as wide as deep. This pro- 

 vides for carrying the water during floods when the tile would be too 

 small and in the spring when the ground is frozen and prevents the water 

 from sinking to the tile. They can then be cultivated over or better, seed- 

 ed down and mowed. 



THE WORK. 



The most of the tile ditches are dug by hand but it is often hard to find 

 competent men when wanted to do the work. The conditions of soil are 

 so varied that a machine that does good work in one place might fail in 

 another. A machine that is adapted to all kinds of soil and sub-soil and 

 that will cut trenches of varying width and depth is necessarily compli- 

 cated and expensive. Probably the simplest machine is the ditching plow 

 drawn by horses. This simply loosens the earth so that it can easily be 

 shoveled out by hand. This is to be recommended for small jobs. Steam 

 and gasoline machines are in us and giving excellent satisfaction where 

 extensive work is requii'ed and the job is large enough to warrant the use 

 of an expensive outfit. There is a traction machine operated by a 60-horse 

 power engine with a capacity ranging from 12 to 42 inches wide and up to 

 12 feet deep. This machine digs from 25 to 200 feet per hour. It is espec- 

 ially designed to work in wet places and is fitted with what is known as 

 the caterpillar construction which prevents sinking in wet ground. The 

 outfit complete weighs about 40,000 pounds. It works satisfactorily in the 

 stickiest kind of gumbo, in clay and sandy soil. Tile up to 12 inches are 

 laid automatically, and tile from 14 to 30 inches are laid by hand; man 

 and tile are protected by steel curbing that is pulled along by the traction. 

 One of the machines dug a clean ditch 24 to 42 inches wide and in places 

 12 feet deep at the rate of one foot per minute. The work tested to per- 

 fection with the survey. 



GEADING BOTTOM AND LAYING TOE. 



The bottom of the ditch must be cut to the proper grade and the tile 

 carefully laid. The whole expense has been made to get a system of 

 drains that will carry the surplus water away. Good tile may be bought 

 and hauled to the field, a complete survey made and digging paid for at 

 a fair price but all this will do no good and will be lost unless the tile are 

 carefully laid to the proper depth and grade. 



