752 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



ing the proper crank-wheels. The operator 

 stands near this large wheel, near the side of the 

 ditch. His position is where you see the vari- 

 ous levers center for pulling and pushing. Of 

 coarse, I soon began to talk, and ask questions. 

 Mr. Hill is an enthusiast on his invention, as 

 you may suppose. I think he has been at work 

 at it for something like l.i years. He commenc- 

 ed in the ditch, digging ditches by hand, and 

 has slowly worked out the machine he was 

 handling. In a little time he began to look 

 me over, perhaps wondering whether it was 

 worth his time to stop work and bother with 

 me. My good friend Green said something to 

 him, I could not quite understand, as the ma- 

 chine made such a racket; but I noticed all at 

 once Mr. Hill was very courteous and obliging. 

 In fact, he .^eemed to forget all about his ma- 

 chine, and it was going ahead of itself ; but he 

 did not seem to care very much, any way. I 

 was just wicked enough to wish it might run 

 against a stone, to see him fly around and take 

 care of it. Sure enough, in a minute more 

 every time that big wheel came around it be- 

 gan to make the most unearthly shrieking and 

 grunting and groaning— enough to frighten one. 

 I was thinking about running, for fear the ma- 

 chine would go to pieces with a crash, and that 

 the boiler would blow up, or something else 

 direful would happen; but the invenior stood 

 his ground and let the thing have quite a tussle 

 with a stone. It made me think of a father 

 who watches his sturdy boy while he is having a 

 contest with a colt or some other unruly ani- 

 mal. After much sweating and puffing the 

 machine actually scooped the stone out. dump- 

 ed it. on the broad rubber belt that carries 

 away the dirt, and carried it outside on the 

 dirt-pile. Then on it went again. Pretty soon 

 another stone was struck; but this one was so 

 large I feared the machine would actually 

 crawl out of the ditch in its frantic efforts to 

 go ahead in spite of the stone. Said I. •' Why. 

 Mr. Hill, it will surely tear those steel cutters 

 all to pieces if you do not do something to help 

 it out.'" 



" Well, suppose it does break a cutter or two. 

 In that wagon over ther(> I have a wiiole load 

 of repairs. If a cutter gets broken in running 

 against a stone, it is only a minute's work to 

 put in a new one, and so with every thing that 

 is likely to break in the whole machine. The 

 broken part can be taken out and a new one 

 put in its place so quickly and easily that 

 breakdowns are of very little consequence." 



Here is another great point in the invention 

 of this machine. The inventor takes into ac- 

 count that different parts must get broken: 

 therefore each part is interchangeable, and the 

 pieces of the whole machine are mostly small. 

 They are made of malleable iron and cast steel, 

 and all the cutters are kept on hand in the 

 wagon, tempered and sharp, ready to take the 

 place of any that become dull or broken. 



After a while we got along where there were 

 not so many stones, and friend Hill turned on 

 the steam until the thing fairly hummed. Why. 

 it was almost like plowing a furrow r.'i.; or 3 

 feet deep. The sides of the ditch were beauti- 

 fully true and accurate, and in the bottom was 

 a little round channel for laying the tile. If a 

 stone of any size is encountered, that big wheel 

 is raised until it scrapes it all around. The 

 operator makes the cutters scrape hard enough 

 so as to cut into the stone if it is not altogether 

 too hard to be cut by steel tools. If too hard, 

 the big wheel simply goes over it down on the 

 other side, and then goes on its way. Stones 

 that can not be taken out by the machine must 

 be either broken to pieces or the tiles laid 

 around the stones, as described in '• Tile Drain- 

 age." There was not very much hand work. 



however, to do in the field where I saw it work- 

 ing. The ground was upland, and clay land at 

 that, with the average number of boulders 

 scattered along. The ground was already the 

 proper grade along the surface, so no lines 

 were stretched. It cuts to any depth not ex- 

 ceeding 4i.< feet. It cuts from ten to twenty 

 rods per hour, and I believe the price paid by 

 the Experiment Station was 15 cts. per rod for 

 30 inches deep. This is just half what I paid 

 for hand work. It requires only a tive-horse- 

 power engine. The steel cutters that do the 

 work are furnished at the factory at a cost of 

 less than a cent apiece ; and this one fact, it 

 seems to me. is the crowning feature of the in- 

 vention. For the work that a steam-ditcher 

 must be called on to do, the cutting tools must 

 become dull very rapidly, or get broken; there- 

 fore provision is made for replacing them, as I 

 have told you. The apparatus weighs about 

 2X tons, and the price is $1000. Mr. Hill has 

 already built seven machines. The one I saw 

 him working with was No. 7; and I tell you it 

 was worth more than— shall I say a circus ? — 

 to see the man who built it operate ir. and hear 

 him talk, and answer questions. When I told 

 him I was going to describe it in our journal he 

 seemed greatly pleased, and offered to pay me 

 what was right and fair; but I told him I was 

 running around the country on my wheel, 

 hunting up things that were interesting and 

 valuable, and that in that line of work I did 

 not take any pay. 



After we sav/ the steam-ditcher I found 

 there were some nice springs at the bases of 

 the great hills on the experiment farm; and as 

 you know one who rides a wheel is always 

 thirsty. I took great delight in visiting the 

 springs. 



I had read in some of the papers friend 

 Green's plan of training tomatoes on stakes, 

 said stakes being of common lath driven into 

 the ground, supported at the upper ends by stout 

 galvanized wire. This galvanized wire is 

 stretched the whole length of the field, being 

 held firmly by stout posts well braced at each 

 end. I remembered of thinking, when I read it. 

 that these posts and wires and lath stakes 

 would be quite a little trouble; but I did not 

 realize what a handsome plantation or vine- 

 yard, if it might be so called, could be made 

 with this arrangement. Why. that tomato- 

 garden was one of the prettiest sights I ever 

 saw in horticulture. The large fine fruit was 

 just then ripening. It was up off from the 

 ground, and the rows were, of course, as 

 straight as a string could be stretched, for that 

 stout wire held them straight and true, and the 

 whole thing was so pretty that the people for 

 miles around were coming there to buy the 

 tomatoes as fast as they were ripe enough to 

 pick. He said the fruit and vegetable dealers 

 of Wooster had objected to the Experiment 

 Station putting their products on the market; 

 but there was not any need, for the people came 

 after the stuff as fast as it was ready. The 

 trial-grounds for the different kinds of toma- 

 toes were on the same plan, but on a smaller 

 scale; and I assure you it was a sight to see all 

 the diff'> rent kinds that have been talked about 

 and advertised in the catalogues there in full 

 bearing. Of course, the dry weather had af- 

 fected their work more or less, especially as 

 they have not yet got sufficient water at their 

 command for their various experiments in irri- 

 gation. 



Somewhere about this juncture friend Green 

 said he was sure supper must be nearly ready. 

 Said I, "Why. friend Green, your wife has 

 been sick with a fever, as I have been told, and 

 I fear you are not in shape to entertain com- 

 pany."' 



