308 



The " Buckeye " Ditcher. 



[July, 



in turn and scrape out the clay. In all cases the excavated 

 earth falls on a rotating clearing canvas and is deposited in a 

 neat pile alongside the trench. 



Adjustment of the depth of the digging v^heel is obtained 

 by a hoist worked from the engine and operated through a 

 double boom, the cables communicating with both the front 

 and the rear of the wheel-frame. If the digging wheel is 

 rotated and lowered, keeping the forward end of the wheel- 

 frame some 3 ft. lower than its rear end, the buckets will dig 

 themselves into the ground at this angle as the whole machine 

 is advanced. At some prearranged depth the descent is checked 

 by means of the front cables; the rear cables are then 

 slackened, allowing the curved sole which follows the digging 

 wheel to take the weight of the rear of the wheel and thus 

 mould and smooth the floor of the trench. 



The method of adjusting the depth of the trench, in order to 

 obtain a drain of even fall when the machine passes over 

 uneven land, is of such practical importance that it may be 

 described in some detail. The system is shown diagram- 

 matically in Fig. 4, in which A B C represents an irregular 

 surface below which the drain has to be cut. At intervals of 

 about 50 yd. along this line, levels are taken in the usual way. 

 Having decided the fall required in the drain, the depths below 

 the surface at which the floor of the trench must lie at A, 

 B and C are calculated. Suppose these depths are 4 ft. 6 in., 

 3 ft. and 4 ft., respectively, as in the diagram (where FG 

 represents the bottom of the drain and FH the horizontal). 

 The next operation is to erect standards fitted with movable 

 cross-members at A. B and C. The cross-members must be 

 adjusted in correlation with a horizontal sighting rod D fixed 

 to the frame of the digging wheel E of the drainer. If this 

 sighting rod is fixed 9 ft. above the low^est part of the wheel, 

 it is then 9 ft. above the floor of the drain, and the cross- 

 members on the standards must be so fixed that they, too, 

 are 9 ft. above the level at which the floor of the drain is tc 

 be dug. Thus the cross-member at A will be 4 ft. 6 in. above' 

 the ground, that at B will be 6 ft. above the ground, and so on. 

 The^'cross-members must be all in line, since the drain is to be 

 cut with an even fall. The machine is then moved to the out- 

 let end A of the drain, since digging always proceeds uphill, 

 and made to face along the line of standards. The digging 

 wheel is caused to cut its way into the ground. When the 

 sio-htino- rod intersects the line of cross-members, the further 



