180 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



THE LATEST IMPROVEMENT IN DITCHING 

 MACHINES. 



Imagine a machine capable of digging a mile of ditch 

 a day, a ditch six feet deep and twelve feet wide, with the 

 dirt taken from the excavation deposited on the surface on 

 each side and tamped down so as to form a water-tight 

 embankment. Here it is. 



A most conservative estimate would be that this ma- 

 chine does the work of fifty scraper shovels, hauled by 100 

 mules, with a $2 a day driver for each team. And then there 

 would be left at least one-third of the original work in going 

 over the course of the scrapers and shaping the excavation 

 to give the finished effect afforded by one passing of the 

 great ditching machine. 



In ancient Egypt, where irrigation had its origin, the 

 system in use before the pyramids were built is -as crude 

 and ineffective as present-day methods when compared with 

 the possibilities involved in the immense ditching machine 

 that has been assembled for service on the Cudahy holdings 

 in the Imperial Valley of Mexico. 



The machine was built to construct canals and laterals 

 described in an irrigation system developed by E. E. E'aston, 

 president of the Engineers' Exploration Company of Los 

 Angeles. It was made by the Buckeye Traction Ditcher Com- 

 pany of Findlay, Ohio, with E. T. Bowen of Madison, Wis., 

 as consulting engineer in designing and construction. It 

 was built in twenty-one days, transported from the factory 

 to the Imperial Valley in thirteen days, and was assembled 

 in ten days. 



It weighs 100,000 pounds and covers a ground area of 

 about 25x60 feet, and is propelled and operated by two 

 thirty-horsepower gas engines. The engines were built in 

 Los Angeles, and are coupled in tandem, one being held in 

 reserve for difficult grades. The machine is all-steel con- 

 struction. The most used parts are manganese steel. 



Cutting Ditch in Imperial Valley. 



Aside from the general principle of rapid work with a 

 minimum expenditure for labor, the feature is its ability 

 to cut irrigation canals to fit exactly the dimensions of depth 

 and width required. It is graded to a nicety and can dig 

 a depth from one inch to eight feet, and any width from 

 four to twelve feet. 



The bulk of the weight of the machine is carried by 

 caterpillar traction wheels of enormous size, which permits 

 digging to absolute grade in the softest soil. The forepart 

 of the machine carries the engines, which drives a shaft 

 wheel, which, in turn, by a series of cogs and chains, propels 

 the machine over the ground, and at the same time operates 

 an immense circular digger carried at the rear. This digger 

 is equipped with scoops with sharpened blades. It first picks 

 up the dirt, and revolving upward, drops the earth into 

 conveyors which carry it concurrently to both sides depositing 

 it upon the banks of the excavation. 



It is part of the plan of the owners of the 16,000 acres 

 included in the Cudahy property to do much of the work of 

 developing their holdings by machinery. 

 . Powerful gas tractors will drag brushing frames to 

 clear the area to be cultivated, the big plows to break the 

 land, and later the disc plows and the planters that are to 

 be used to plant 4,000 acres of long staple cotton, together 

 with 200 acres of sea island cotton, which will constitute 

 this spring's crop. 



Mr. Daly, general manager of the Cudahy property, is 

 investigating cotton picking machinery with a view to oper- 

 ating it when the big crop is ready for harvest, should his 

 investigation convince him that the machine will do the 

 work. A gin is to be built, and perhaps a compress. 



(Continued from page 175.) 



ORGANIZATION OF IRRIGATION DISTRICTS. 



Under St. 1897, p. 254, as amended by St. 1911, p. 509, 

 providing for the organization of irrigation districts, a notice 

 of the presentation of a petition for the organization of the 

 district which is authorized by the petitioners and which pur- 

 ports to be -signed by some of them for all, and which is 

 regularly published, is valid, whether the purported signa- 

 tures are actually written by the petitioners or some other 

 person by their authority. Imperial Water Company No. I v. 

 Board of Supervisors of Imperial County. Supreme Court of 

 California. 120 Pacific 780. 

 STATE REGULATION. 



The legislature has power to authorize by statute the 

 supervision and control of the appropriation and distribution 

 of the public waters of the state by administrative officers, 

 pursuant to adjudicated priorities ; the fact that a water official 

 may make a wrongful distribution of water in particular 

 cases, or erroneously open a Watergate to pass water for an 

 appropriator whose right is denied by another, not being 

 ground for holding the statutes unconstitutional. Hamp v. 

 State. Supreme Court of Wyoming. 118 Pacific 653. 



THIS SAVES YOU FIFTY CENTS. 



Remit $3.00 for one year's subscription to THE IRRI- 

 GATION AGE and one copy of the "Primer of Hydraulics," 

 cloth bound. 



The Machine at Work. 



