130 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



way to overcome this deficiency in line pull and that was to mount 

 a hoisting drum on the tractor, but a drum with gears, cable and 

 necessary frame would weigh 800 to 1,000 pounds, and if carried 

 on the rear of the tractor in the form of a cantilever load would lift 

 the front of the tractor from the ground and interfere with steer- 

 ing. One end of this frame was therefore hinged to the back of 

 the tractor and the other end carried by a skid that dragged along the 

 ground. To this end was also hinged a frame with two broad tines 

 that would sink into the meadow when the cable was used, and 

 prevented the tractor from rolling back with the line pull. This 

 was necessary because the tractor has no brakes. The anchor 

 could be raised and lowered from the driver's seat. 



The Fordson tractor is equipped with a pulley attachment placed 

 at the right of the machine just below the right foot of the driver. 

 It was from this drive we got the power for the drum, through a 

 silent chain to the jack-shaft on the drum frame. A square jaw 

 clutch was also placed on the jack-shaft in order to disengage the 

 drum gears when moving the tractor. Everything was arranged so 

 that the driver did not have to leave his seat except to crank the 

 engine. 



We were now ready to combine the tractor with the new plow and 

 start ditch cutting.For the first two weeks the meadow encountered 

 was very poor and in fact so bad that the amount of work turned 

 out was no greater than with the old machines. This showing was 

 partly due to the unfamiliarity of the men with the new outfit. The 

 first month they cut 50,000 feet in spite of the bad meadow. The 

 second month 96,000 feet were cut and the third 125,000 feet were 

 cut in 21 working days. The last month the tractor worked in 

 competition with one of the old power plants with a new plow, 

 which cut 62,000 feet. Our maximum footage with the old output 

 was 6,500 feet of 10x30 inch ditches in 8^ hours. Our maximum 

 footage with the new plow and tractor is 10,000 feet in 7^ hours. 



This was speeding up the ditch cutting to the point where the 

 small spur gang could not keep up ; in fact they had hardly made a 

 good start on the 1,200 acres that the machine had been working on. 



The tractor could be handled so easily and so quickly that it 

 occurred to us, why not cut the longer spur ditches by machine and 

 leave the small ones and the hole filling to the laborers. This was 

 tried with a small plow and proved a big saving in both time and 

 money. 



I have said that we had almost reached the plow as it is today. 

 We are now about to reach that stage. 



