The Age wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with this purpose in 

 view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and f pictures of iields, orchards and 

 farm homes; pri/.e-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. Also sketches or plans for convenient and 

 commodious barns, hen houses, corncribs, etc. Sketches of labor- saving devices, such as ditch clean- 

 ers and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. 

 Will you help us improve the appearance of The Age? 



A DITCH CLEANER. 



BY JOEL SHOMAKER. 



ONE of the most useful of home-made 

 farm implements is a ditch cleaner 

 made by a Utah man. It consists of the 

 forks of a tree cut about ten feet long, on 

 one side of which is a share of sheet iron. 

 The plow is heavily weighted and pulled 

 through irrigation ditches, canals or creeks 

 by horses. It throws out gravel and mud 

 in a most wonderful manner. Two men 

 with four horses can do the work of half a 

 hundred ditch men with shovels. This 

 man owns about six miles of ditch and 

 can clean it out every spring quicker than 

 co-operative ditches with thirty men are 

 cleaned. 



The ditcher is a funny-looking machine 

 and one not knowing what it is used for 

 would have to guess many times. A tree 

 trunk about ten feet in length and one foot 

 in diameter was cut so that a smaller limb 

 would project at an angle equal to the fig- 

 ure V, making the back opening about 

 three and one-half feet. The main trunk 

 was hewn down smooth on the outer sur- 

 face and the limb cut sloping from the 

 top to the outside. Stanchions were set 

 in both, so as to make cross braces. On 

 the sloping side was tacked a flaring piece 

 of sheet iron made much in the shape of a 

 plow share. Weights were put on the 

 front and on the cross pieces. A long 

 pole, probably fifteen feet in length, ex- 

 tended from an iron band in the front, over 

 the top and behind. 



26 



A DITCH CLEANED. 



The pole is used to raise the front of the 

 ditcher when necessary. A man swings 

 his weight upon the back and there- 

 by lifts the front or points from the mud. 

 A big hook is bolted on the top to which, 

 by a long chain, the double-trees are at- 

 tached. In ordinary work two horses can 

 pull the ditcher, but in most cases where 

 the ditches are filled with mud and gravel 

 two teams are necessary. To strengthen 

 the plow and make it more substantial, 

 braces of iron could be put in, extending 

 from the center cross beam to either run- 

 ner, as in a sleigh. The machine is prim- 

 itive and a mere emergency makeshift, but 

 contains the elementary principles for a 

 fine ditcher. 



In constructing new canals it has no 

 equal, considering the expense of making. 

 For cleaning drains the machine is of 

 equal benefit as in clearing ditches. The 

 eastern farmer needs such a cheap, handy 

 implement as well as the western irrigator. 

 There is no patent on the idea. Some six 

 by eight good oak timbers will make a bet- 

 ter ditcher than an old tree. Creeks that 

 overflow can be cleaned by one of those 

 machines so that a channel will be cut by 

 the next freshet. Fields can be easily 

 drained of surplus water by plowing fur- 

 rows and cleaning the ditches with this 

 home-made implement. 



FATTENING HOGS ON ALFALFA. 



BY F. C. BARKER, OF NEW MEXICO. 



MOST of our Western farmers were 

 originally induced to embark in 

 alfalfa farming by the tempting prices 

 offered for the hay in the neighboring 

 towns. But these markets rapidly be- 

 came overstocked, and as alfalfa could not 

 stand the high rate of freight necessary 

 to get to more distant points, prices pretty 

 generally fell to $6- per ton, baled 



