CANAL roxsTIIt'CTIOE'. 45 



reference. The taking of these levels being done, he 

 should finish his track survey of the river bank up the 

 stream to the point at which his first line of cross levels 

 originated. Having established the objective point in 

 this way, the matter of running the transit to the target 

 and placing the grade stakes is very simple, and any 

 schoolboy ought to be able to locate the grade line 

 correctly. 



Ditching Methods. With regard to excavation 

 and cost, the smaller ditches may be constructed by hand 

 shoveling, by plowing and by scraping, or by plowing 

 with a large double-mold-board plow ; the larger ditches 

 by plowing and scraping, or by grading or ditching ma- 

 chines. Hand work is of course most expensive but it 

 will be necessary in some places. Some plowed ditches 

 are the cheapest, but they are only temporary and in the 

 end more expensive. Scrapers will cover the greatest 

 range of work and will fairly represent the average cost. 

 The modern thing in scrapers is the wheeled affair. 

 Work done with ditching machines is very satisfactory 

 and far cheaper than any other work. Not every farmer 

 can afford to buy a machine to do his own work alone, 

 but when farmers become associated in the putting down 

 of wells and the construction of reservoirs and ditches, 

 then it will pay to buy machines, for on a large piece of 

 work they will soon pay their cost. 



Cost o.f Construction. Classifying irrigating 

 canals and ditches according to their widths, it has been 

 found that for those averaging less than five feet in 

 width the expense of construction including headworks, 

 Humes, etc, is $481 a mile ; for those five feet in width 

 and under ten feet, $1628 a mile, and for those ten feet 

 or more in width $5603 a mile. The greater number of 

 the irrigating systems of the country have been con- 

 structed under such conditions that the owners cannot 

 give even an approximate estimate as to what they really 



