PRACTICAL NOTES ON UNDERDRAINING. ; 591 
sented by A should be about eight feet long and five inches wide at the middle; B B 
are legs three or four feet long, and C C are braces. The spirit vial is set in a recess, 
eut in the middle of A. A joiner’s “spirit- Fie. 18 
level and plumb” may be fastened to eases 
the side of A with two screws. Then the i 
sight is taken over the upper edge of A. 
In some instances, if there is no wind 
to blow the plumb-line, and one has a ; 
true steel square, he may strike a level Pi 
pretty correctly by placing the long part ‘ 
of a steel square on two stakes and plumb- - 
ing the arm of the square as it hangs 
down. A small thread should be em- 
ployed as a plumb-line for such a pur- 
SLT IER habe Se PAP HR sealant ach eat 
aa. ey " miei Ae eros ates 
o 4 
A 
pose. 
Shovels for ditching.—LEvery laborer who 
shovels earth, whether from ditches or other excavations, should be provided with a 
good steel round-pointed shovel. If the handle be of the proper curvature, so that 
the blade will rest almost flat on the ground when the handle is dropped across 
one knee, a large proportion of the labor and consequent fatigue will be avoided, 
as one knee can be employed as a fulcrum to lift the shovelful of earth withont 
‘employing the muscles of the back. With such a shovel properly ‘hung, a laborer 
sill be able to throw out more than twice the amount of earth from a ditch, with 
less fatigue, in a day, than with a common dirt-shovel having a short handle. When 
excavating narrow ditches one inch or more may be turned up on each side of the 
blade, or it may be cut off, making a blade. five or six inches broad. When a digger 
must bend his back to enable him to get down to the dirt, every time his shovel is 
thrust in, the fatigue resulting from the elevation of the body and bending down also 
will exceed the fatigue arising from the expenditure of the force employed in shovel- 
ing. A laborer must keep the back straight when shoveling, or his power of endurance 
will soon fail. i 
A diichers’ steel pick.—On many farms the substratum is so compact and full of 
“hard pan,” and smal) stones imbedded in the rock-like earth, that the best steel spade 
will scarcely enter one inch. For excavating such land, a ditcher requires a good steel- 
pointed, double-bitted pick, one end pointed four square, and the opposite end chisel- 
shaped, about one and a quarter inch broad. ‘The best auality of steel should be em- 
ployed ; the temper should be as hard as the stee] will bear to be made without being brit- 
tle. As steel varies so much in quality, no particular rule can be given as to tempering 
the pick. The maker or the blacksmith must “temper and try.” The end of the handle 
that enters the eye of the pick should be large, strong, and dovetailed, so that the end 
can be kept tight in the eye without difficulty. Such handles should be made of the 
best quality of hard and tough timber; and the large end should be soaked in linseed 
oil two or three days before it is used, to render the timber durable, and to prevent 
shrinkage and working loose. 
Excavating very deep ditches.—It frequently occurs, in cutting a large main ditch, 
that it is necessary, at certain places, to sink it five or six feet deep, in order to 
make the bottom of a uniform grade. When cutting a ditch through some kinds of 
ground, unless the banks are left so sloping that the earth carfnot cave in, a great deal 
of labor is required in throwing out much more earth than is really necessary. To 
avoid this, after the surface of the ditch has been excavated about two feet in depth, 
procure two wide planks sixteen or twenty feet long; place one on each side of the 
Fig. 14. 
SURFACE 
4 ‘, 4 
SURFACE F 
excavation, and drive in a brace or prop between the planks, as represented by Fig. 
- 14, in which a large plank is shown, placed against the bank of a ditch, with two props 
extending across from one plank to the other. A width of two feet will enable a dig 
s 
