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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Western IrrigationJ^eveler and Ditcher. 



A New and Valuable Machine for Leveling Land and Building Field Laterals. 



A new machine has recently been put -on the market by 

 the Western Wheeled Scraper Company of Aurora, 111., for 

 leveling land in irrigation work, making field laterals, vege- 

 table borders and drainage ditches. This machine is also 

 suitable for grading roads and is the result of many years' 

 study on the part of Mr. R. J. Hand, the inventor, of San 

 Antonio, Texas. The company manufacturing the machine 



day and is best operated by one man and four horses. It can, 

 however, be operated but would do less work, with two horses. 

 The work is done by setting the blade at an angle of 45 

 degrees to the line of draft and adjusting the depth of cut by 

 hand wheels, which automatically lock in position. Just 

 enough soil is cut from the elevation to fill the depressions 

 and any excess soil is worked along the blade to the rear end 



Irrigation Leveler and Ditcher. 



had it on exhibition on the grounds of the Territorial Fair 

 at Albuquerque during the time of the Irrigation Congress 

 in that city. 



We are reproducing herewith several cuts which illus- 

 trate the workings of the machine and its general design. 



The principles involved in this machine are new in their 

 application to this class of work. The use of the long wheel 



and picked up by the front end on the next turn of the 

 machine and this process is repeated, the machine being 

 driven continuously around the field in the same manner as a 

 mowing machine. 



The driver has nothing to do but keep his horses on the 

 line and handle the adjustment wheel. Because of the curve 

 of the blade and the angle at which it works the land is 



Irrigation Leveler Making Borders. 



base which places the reversible cutting blade sufficiently 

 far from either end of the frame to allow the soil cut from 

 the elevation to be dropped in exactly the right amounts and 

 in the proper places, thereby filling the depressions and per- 

 fectly spreading the soil so as to produce a perfect plane over 

 the entire field. This work is done automatically and forms 

 a very even surface from rough fields, hog wallows and 

 what is known as bumpy ground. 



This machine is said to be able to handle five acres per 



pulverized while being leveled, the result being, so the in- 

 ventor claims, the same as that obtained by a disc harrow, 

 and it makes the surface so smooth that much less water is 

 needed in irrigation, and a more perfect distribution of the 

 water handled increases the production of the soil. It is 

 claimed by Mr. Hand that this fine pulverizing of the soil 

 produces vegetables and fruits of a more uniform size, which 

 is an important consideration so far as shipping or storing 

 them is concerned 



