TRACTION DITCHING MACHINES 



From information furnished by the Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company of Findlay r 

 Ohio, the following statement has been compiled. The first ditcher was imported into 

 Ontario in 1904. Four more machines came into the same province in the following 

 five years, one into Quebec in 1907 and one into New Brunswick in 1909. Since then 

 no less than 134 have been brought in up to December 31st, 1915, as follows: 



1910. 11 machines 1913 25 machines 



1911 16 " 1914 31 



1912 24 " 1915 27 



The importation by Provinces has been as follows: 



Alberta 1 machine 



New Brunswick 1 " 



Nova Scotia 2 machines 



Saskatchewan 2 " 



Quebec 3 



British Columbia 4 " 



Ontario 128 



Total 141 machines 



The extensive use of traction ditching machines in Ontario is due largely to the 

 instruction and demonstration campaign carried on by the Ontario Agricultural College. 

 This is financed by provincial appropriations and by a portion of the annual grant 

 under The Agricultural Instruction Act. Ontario has an Act for providing cheap money 

 for drainage purposes. 



THE COST OF TILE DRAINAGE 



W. W. HUBBARD, Superintendent Experimental Farm, Fredericton, N.B. 



It is impossible to give an accurate forecast of what a drainage system will cost per 

 rod or per acre until a very thorough examination is made of the nature of the soil and 

 subsoil and the depths to which it is required to go to get suitable grades and outlets as 

 well as how close together the drains must be to drain the land. In our generally rolling 

 country, grades and outlets are not difficult, but there is a great deal of subsoil that is. 

 On the, Experimental Station land, for instance, outside of perhaps 20 acres, the 370 

 acres lying between the C.P.R. track and the St. John river has a tenaciousclayey 

 subsoil with many boulders in it that makes machine excavation very slow and hand 

 work very laborious and expensive. In most parts, after the top 18 inches is removed, 

 the pick must be used on every inch below and boulders are encountered that require 

 the use of considerable quantities of dynamite. Explosives add considerably to the 

 cost in two ways. First, their own cost (13c. to 20c. per pound) and by causing 

 much loss of time in that the ditchers must quit work and retire to a safe distance every 

 time a charge is ready to be ignited. While a power ditcher can excavate to a depth of 

 39 inches for 30c. per rod and sometimes under very best conditions for slightly less, 

 and hand excavation can be made for 50c. per rod, under the conditions at the Experi- 

 mental Station the cost has been $1.70 per rod. 



Beside the cost of excavation, in the case of underdrains, the cost of the tile, the 

 stone or the wooden pipe have to be considered. 



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