1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



355 



as we send out with each package of mush- 

 room spawn, to any one who wants it; and 

 if vou want the fullest particulars known 

 in regard to mushroom culture, we can furnish 

 the latest books at from 75 cts. to ^1.50. 



ANOTHER VISIT TO T. B. TEERY'S. 



SOMETHING 



ABOUT DIGGIN(i DITCHES BY 

 STEAM POWEIi. 



In our book on tile drainage, you may n^mem- 

 ber that fiiend Chamberlain says he does not 

 know of any machine ihat has proved to be a 

 decided success in digging ditches for laying 

 tile. In other words, all things considered, an 

 expert man like Chamberlain himself, with the 

 proper hand tools, will dig the ditches cheaper 

 than it could be done, at the time his book was 

 written, by machine power. Of course, circum- 

 stances alter cases, and this was the genei'ai 

 advice given. Since the book was put out, 

 however, there have been several cases men- 

 tioned where tiling was successfully done by 

 means of a steam-power ditcher. One of these 

 is right in our own county — in fact, at our coun- 

 ty intirmary— and I have been invited to go 

 down and see it work. We expect to have an 

 appendix to the tile book now very soon, dis- 

 cussing this matter a little further, but where 

 ditches are dug of a depth and width suitable 

 for irrigating and draining the land so that 

 they might lie called small canals, instead of 

 ditches, the case is very ditferent. In tlie des- 

 ert wastes of Arizona they are all the time mak- 

 ing great irrigating canals by means of steam 

 machinery; and right in the same neighbor- 

 hood where friends Chamberlain and Terry 

 both live, there has been a piece of work going 

 on during the past winter that I propose to tell 

 you something about. I first saw a notice of it 

 in one of Terry's articles in the Practical Fan n- 

 er. The more I thought of it. the more I 

 thought I must break away from business and 

 go and see the machine at work. 



Part of friend Terry's farm has been, for the 

 past fifty years, almost if not quite useless be- 

 cause of standing water that could not be got 

 rid of w4thout making a ditch live or six miles 

 in length in order to get the requisite fall. 

 Years ago an attempt was made to do this by 

 hand work and horse power; but it was not a 

 success. During the past winter one of our 

 Ohio manufacturing establishments (Marion 

 Steam >Shovel Co., Marion, O.) sent some men 

 out in the depth of winter to put up a machine 

 right in the swamp. They Hrst dug a pit. or 

 pond-hole, which was. of course, speedily filled 

 with water. On this body of water they con- 

 structed a sort of boat, or scow, almost 100 feet 

 long, and perhaps 20 feet wide. When the boat 

 was finished, machinery was set up on it, to dig 

 a canal for the machine to sail on. If one were 

 not posted in regard to modern improvements 

 he might take it to be one of the extinct rep- 

 tiles of former ages— a great big rhinoceros or 

 sea-horse, foi' instance. Then imagine the 

 thing to have a snout, or rooter, tvvi-nty or thir- 

 ty feet long, with a tremendous backbone to en- 

 able it to root in the mud and swamp, and you 

 have it. This great rooter drops into the water 

 with a splash and bang that might almost 

 frighten one. Then it moves forward far 

 enough down into th(> mud to go under the 

 stumps, trees, and bushes, and finally makes a 

 scoop, hoisting its l»a<l high up in the air, 

 swinging it far (Miougli over the banks of the 

 ditch to be sure the semi-liquid mud does not 

 run back again and thus make it necessary to 

 scoop it out a second time, and then you can 

 form some idea of the way the machine does its 



work. Three or four men operate the huge an- 

 imal, and a surveyor goes along with the prop- 

 er instruments to see just when it has rooted 

 deep enough and wide enough; and the water 

 runs into the canal as fast as they dig it, so that 

 the whole thing istloated down stream in a riv- 

 er or a canal of its own making. 



A part of the equipment is a dynamo, and 

 electric lamp so disposed that the work, when 

 required, may go on day and night. All that is 

 needed is coal, and this is dumped from the 

 bridge over the canal ou the nearest wagon 

 road, right into a flat boat that floats it down to 

 the great "ichthyosaurus" of modern times. 

 While operating this ponderous machinery, 

 some braces, or stays, are run out and anchored 

 securely into the bank of the ditch on either 

 side. One can easily imagine that these stays 

 are the animal's fore feet as it claws them into 

 the mud in order to get a safe foothold while he 

 pushes forward his gigantic rooter. The ma- 

 chine has been at work all through the latter 

 part ot the winter, and the canal is now over a 

 mile in length. The machine is off by itself in 

 the swamp, with nothing to betray its presence 

 except the volumes of black smoke that roll 

 forth, and thi> snort of its nostrils as it gets un- 

 der an unusually heavy stump or tree, or while 

 it lifts the same aloft in the air, preparatory to 

 dropping it on the bank. The mud and bushes 

 and small trees are not deposited on the bank 

 in a regular furrow, or winrow, for that would 

 not let the water get in readily from the adjoin- 

 ing swamp; therefore this stuff is dropped in 

 heaps, something like little mountains, with 

 valleys or canyons between. 



May be you wonder why I go into details in re- 

 gard to this latter part. Well, the truth is, dur- 

 ing the day these aforesaid " canyons," brought 

 some sad experiences. There had just been a 

 tremendous heavy rain in the neighborhood a 

 day or two before our visit. Friend Terry con- 

 cluded the easiest way to get out into thesw^amp 

 where the machine was working was to work 

 along this bank of debris. Ordinarily it dries 

 off on top so as to be very fair walking; but at 

 the time we were there it was not (luUe equal to 

 a sawed -stone pavement — that is, not all the 

 way. When we had got almost a mile out into 

 the '* wilderness." by much pains and hard work 

 in getting over the .".foresaid canyons (carrying 

 rails, bits of board, etc.), we reluctantly decided 

 that it would not be prudent to go any fui'ther; 

 and Huber. who had been so animated by the 

 prospect of the visit that he could neither eat 

 nor sleep, was fast losing his enthusiasm; and 

 I myself really feared we should all go down up 

 to our necks, and stick there like so many cab- 

 bages. V/e could not call anybody who lived 

 in the vicinity, and the people on the great 

 rooting - machine, which was yet hardly in 

 sight, could not be made to hear any way. We 

 stopi)ed on one of the drvest of the mounds, 

 and held a short council. Friend Terry said he 

 must take Huber on his back and make a bee- 

 line, to th,^ best of his knowledge, for dry 

 ground. It just now occurs to me right here, 

 that [ proniised not to tell what happened. 

 There is one thing that concerned myself alone, 

 however, that I think I may mention. In our 

 ex])loratiotis we had found it lu'cessary to carry 

 a couple of sticks, not only to leel our way, but 

 to help us to stand upright in the sinking mud. 

 Well, once I happened to put all my weight on 

 my stick; it treacherously broke in two in the 

 middle, and down I sprawled in the mud and 

 water. I suijpose Hulier ought to have looked 

 sobei- while his papa lay wallowing in the mire, 

 but when, in spite of all my efforts. I went clear 

 down, it was too much to expect of a boy nine 

 years old. — ^^^ 



Pretty soon friend Terry shouted ;that he 



