PRACTICAL NOTES ON UNDERDRAINING. 589 
Excavating small ditches—The most economical and expeditious manner of excavat- 
ing ditches of ordinaryssize is to stake out the course of the ditch, using many short 
stakes not more than a foot high, and three or four long ones ; then, having put a sharp 
point and a sharp colter on a common two-horse plow, strike a straight furrow, only 
four or five inches deep, in case the surface is covered with turf, and let the furrow- 
slice fall back again into the furrow. Hf the furrow-slice does not return to the furrow, 
let it be turned back with iron hooks. Now let the plow be run back in the same 
place, so as to eu a farrow-slice about ten inches or one foot in width, which the plow 
will throw entirely out on the bank. A goed plowman will remove all the “ first 
spading,” by operating in this manner, faster than twenty men can cut the turf and 
throw it out with spades. In case the first furrow-slice is not of sufficient width for a 
deep ditch, tet the plow be run along back and forth to cut off another furrow-slice of 
the desired width. If a double team can be employed, where the land is not stony, a 
depth of six or eight inches may be thrown out with a plow. Should there be much 
loose earth after the sod has been removed, let it be shoveled out with round-pointed 
shovels; then drive a common plow, without a colter, back and forth in the excava- 
tion, until the impleinent has loosened a depth of nearly two feet. After the mellow 
earth has been thrown out with shovels, hitch a team to a subsoil plow and loosen the 
hard under-stratum, and continue to plow up and throw out the earth until the desired 
depth has been reached. The writer has sunk many hundreds of lineal rods of tile 
ditch in the foregoing manner, the expense of which did not exceed eight cents per 
rod. The bottom must necessarily be graded with a ditcher’s pick if the ground be 
_very hard. It will be understood, also, that after the excavation has been made over a 
foot deep, a long whifietree should be employed, so that each horse may travel at 
least two feet away from the bank of the excavation. A chain also, two or three fect 
in length, must extend from the end of the plow-beam to the double whiftletree. When 
the sod is removed with spades and shovels, a vast amount of hard labor maybe saved 
by making the ditches as narrow as they can be excavated, as a narrow cut across the 
water veins will stop the onward flow of water, and conduct it to the bottom of the 
channel quite as effectually as if an excavation were made in the same place one foot 
wide. I, for example, the ditches are to receive two-inch or even three-inch tiles, and 
the excavating is all to be done by hand tools, let a line be stretched, say, fifty or a hun- 
dred feet in length, and with the spade cut through the sod beneath the line. Then re- 
move the line eight inches distant, and cut the sod for the other side of the ditch. Ifthe 
ground can be spaded, a digger will be able to excavate from ten to twenty lineal rods 
in a day, according to the compactness of the subsoil. As the ditch is sunk, the sides 
should be dressed off roughly, merely to keep the banks true, and tapering to a width 
of only four or five inches at the bottom of a ditch thirty inches deep. 
An experienced ditcher will probably demur at the idea of working in such a nar- 
row excavation. The writer once employed a digger who made true ditches, but he 
had been educated to excavate ditches for receiving stones, and he would not cut less 
than one foot wide at the surface and ten inches at the bottom. He would not be con- 
vinced that an excayation only seven or eight inches wide at the surface, and four or 
five inches wide at the bottom, could be made with about one-half the labor. When 
excavating such narrow ditches the digger must be provided with a good narrow spade 
and a ditcher’s scoop. Then he must learn to work with one foot forward of the other. 
Ditching implements.—There is a great difference in spades. Some are made of the 
poorest kind of rolled iron. The blade of such spades must be very heavy to endure 
severe usage in the hands of carelesslaborers. Besides this, they will not wear smooth; 
and the blades cannot be kept bright without much difficulty. Hence, iron spades are 
heavy, unwieldy, and always so rusty as to hold the earth, thus making hard work 
still more laborious. Figs. 4 and 5 represent two steel ditching-spades, of the most 
approved forms. Fig. 4 represents a steel spade of extra length, ironed extra strong 
on the handle. Fig. 5 shows a concave blade, having a circular edge. This spade 
is made of good steel, properly tempered and polished, and is much lighter than the 
other, although very strong. This concave blade is used in removing the first sod-spad- 
ing, when excavating narrow ditches for small tiles. Fig. 4is designed for digging 
in heavy, unctuous clay, where a tool of unusual strength is requisite. To work 
easily, steel spades should be kept bright on both sides, and the blades should be 
ground to a sharp but abrupt edge. If spades of the desired length and breadth of 
blade cannot be obtained readily at country stores, the nearest manufacturer of spades 
and ditching tools could be addressed, with directions for making tools of the desired 
form and size. 
Fig. 6 represents a spade of the latest improvement. The blade is twenty inches 
long, five inches wide, and circular at the entering edge. This style of spade is de- 
signed especially for excavating deep and narrow tile ditches. ‘The handle is longer 
than the handies of ordinary spades. The blade is concave -on the front side, and is 
usually made of steel neatly polished. .As the shoulder at the head ,of the blade is 
quite too narrow to receive the .digger’s foot, an iron adjustable shoulder jis held by 
two screw-bolts to any desired place .on ‘the handle. ‘With .such a spade, ‘after the 
