Digging the Ditch 485 



When digging begins, a strong line is stretched 

 about 4 inches back from the side of the ditch and a 

 narrow cutting made, seldom necessarily more than 12 

 inches wide, as shown in Fig. 159, the effort being to 

 remove as little earth as possible. The sides are cut 

 true to line to begin with, and maintained so to the 

 bottom, in order that a straight bed may be finished 

 to receive the tiles. When the ditch is deeper than 

 4 feet, it is necessary to make it a little wider at the 

 top but not much, as will be seen in Figs. 160 and 161, 

 where the first shows the men in line cutting a ditch 

 4.5 to 5 feet deep, while the second figure shows 

 another man following with the tile hoe, working from 

 the top, cleaning out the bottom and bringing it to 

 grade line. The line which is seen in Fig. 161, 

 stretched along the ditch, is placed parallel with the 

 grade line some whole number of feet above it, and is 

 used by the man to measure from when finishing the 

 bottom. The line is a slender but strong cord, which 

 may be stretched tightly, so as not to sag. In the 

 case in question, the man determined his depths with 

 the measuring rod in the foreground, his long expe- 

 rience enabling him to dispense with a sliding arm, 

 which is generally used, forming a right angle with 

 the rod and long enough to reach the grade line. In 

 Fig. 162, the last man is using the tile hook, shown 

 second from the right in Fig. 158, to lay the tile in 

 place. This ditch, although for 6 -inch tile, laid 4.5 

 to 5 feet deep, is scarcely more than 15 inches wide at 

 the top, as the length of the tile placed across the 

 ditch for a scale shows. 



