CANAL CONSTRUCTION. 83 



pointed, long-handled steel miner's shovel. Such a 

 ditch, three-quarters of a mile in length, was once 

 plowed out in half a day, and four men shoveled it out 

 in a day and a half. Gullies or intervening water- 

 courses can be flumed with lumber, or, better still, 

 dammed or diked with earth. In these instructions 

 it is presumed that the main ditch has been built to a 

 given elevation, so as to make the laterals available in 

 condu(5ling the water across the highest end or side of 

 the field or farm, from which it can be best condudled 

 onto the greatest area of the land. Do not depend 

 upon the eye in determining the location of any perma- 

 nent lateral. The surface of the land is very deceptive, 

 and water will often seem to run up hill to the unobser- 

 vant. Much depends upon the natural contour of the 

 land in locating the laterals. On land with a fall of 

 18 inches to 100 feet laterals should be made each 60 

 feet apart, the water being passed from one lateral to 

 the next, thus irrigating the intervening land between 

 the laterals. These field laterals can be plowed out 

 each season with a 14-inch lister or buster, and the 

 process is described more fully later on in the chapter 

 devoted to the methods of applying water. 



