286 



ENCxINEERING ON THE FARM 



to allow the workman to stand and spade. A skeleton 

 or muck spade is used for removing the earth. This 

 spade has a blade 18, 20, or 22 inches in length, made of 

 three prongs with a solid cutting edge at the lower end. 

 A cut the full length of the blade is taken, the slice of earth 

 cut being comparatively thin. The top of the spade is 

 pushed slightly forward and turned to the center to break 

 the cut loose. It is then raised and the material thrown 

 out. The loose dirt which falls in the trench, known as 

 crumbs, is thrown out by means of a long-handled, round-end 

 shovel. The last cut of the spade reaches to within 2 or 3 



inches of the grade and is 

 just wide enough at the- 

 bottom to admit the tile. 

 The bottom is cleaned out 

 and dressed to fit the lower 

 half of the tile with the 

 tile scoop. The tile scoop 

 is a long-handled tool, 

 semicircular in shape, 17 

 inches in length, and 

 made in sizes to fit the 

 various tile up to 8 inches. 

 Above that size the fin- 

 ishing is usually done 

 with the long-handled 

 shovel. In operating the 

 tile scoop the workman 

 stands in the trench and 

 draws the scoop toward 

 him (Fig. 235). The 

 bottom of the trench 

 behind the tool is smooth and conforms to the lower half 

 of the tile. In trenching by hand, unless the trench is deep 

 or the digging hard, two men work together. One takes 

 out the top spading, and the other the bottom and finishes 



After University of Minnesota 



Fig. 234. Hand tools used in tile trench- 

 ing: skeleton spade, long-handled shovel, 

 tile hook, tile scoop, solid spade 



