CONDUITS, PORTAGE, ETC. 289 



From the spout a main pipe or hose communicates to a pipe extending 

 across and above tlie rows and bearing- brandies descending in the 

 alternate interspaces bet^veen the rows, while each is provided with a 

 fork or pair of arms to supply a pair of rows. In this special form of 

 the machine the main cross-pipe is hinged to the two sides of the body 

 of the wagon, and at one of these junctures is a lever with a ratchet 

 quadrant whereby to elevate the descending pipes with the arms and 

 nozzles when turning, or to surmount stumps or other obstacles, for in 

 this case the descending pipes are inflexible and stiffly attached to the 

 main cross-pipe and the lever, that they may be elevated by depressing 

 the latter, which can be set at any notch desired, so that the arms may 

 be allowed to trail or drag, or may be suspended partly or wholly near 

 the ground or higher to suit the operator. 



There are other ways of attaching this apparatus which allow it to 

 conform to the irregularities of the ground more thoroughly and inde- 

 pendent of the rocking of the vehicle, but it is unnecessary to describe 

 them in this connection. 



The two arms of the main cross-pipe extend in a direct line and have 

 all the joints and segments stiff, while the segments have each a length 

 equal to the width of a pair of row spaces, whereas b3' another con- 

 struction set forth in this report the main arms are either partially or 

 wholly flexile in their joints or segments, or both, and they may stand 

 at an angle with each other, or continuously x)arallel, as desired. In 

 those cases the parts are supported by a bar or frame which may or may 

 not have runners or legged-wheels other than those of another vehicle 

 combined therewith, and the descending branches are also usually made 

 partially or whoUy flexile, that they may hang or drag more thoroughly, 

 conformant to the irregularities of the ground and the rows. Similarly 

 the terminal branches on the descending tubes may stand parallel or at 

 an angle with each other and be straight or curved, with or without 

 flexile joints or segments, but the exact construction in the present ex- 

 ami3le is illustrated in Plate XXXIX, Figs. 4 and 5. While some curve 

 seems usually desirable, it may be made either in the descending branch 

 or its fork, or in the terminal arms, or in all these parts. 



Eeferriug to Figs. 4 and 5, t is the descending pipe, y its fork, which 

 may be braced by an additional piece, and this may serve as a weight, 

 3/2", to hold the fork from being lifted or tilted, or as a slide-plate, e?/, 

 beneath, to prevent the ground from wearing the parts above it, or 

 again a separate slide-plate or independent weight, freely removable or 

 not, is sometimes combined with the fork [as will be shown in Plate 

 XLIX]. There are also different ways of making the angle-piece, and 

 one of the best is in Fig. 5 of Plate XXXIX, where two curved pieces 

 of tube are cut and matched together so as to form a 3-way fork, the 

 angle, y, between the horizontal i)arts being about 90^^ and the eleva- 

 tion of the part, f, which is inserted in the descending branch, is about 

 450 from the horizontal base-plane. Such a fork offers the least possi- 

 63 CONG 19 



