Proceedings of Eighth Annual Meeting 127 



constructed in such a manner that it seemed the upkeep would be 

 practically nil. 



No efforts were made to select a special piece of meadow for its 

 first test. There was no reason to, — it should cut anything to be 

 found on the salt marsh. It was taken to the location of one of the 

 power plants and started on a fairly good piece of window, — that 

 is for about 200 feet. The performance on this 200 feet of good 

 meadow was all and more than we expected both for cutting and for 

 removing the plow from the ditch. Then our troubles began. 



We have cut over 20,000 acres of salt marsh in Atlantic County 

 but I never before encountered such meadow as we then attempted 

 to cut. It was hard enough to walk upon and to cut it was almost 

 impossible. We had not cut 50 feet before we were compelled to 

 stop. First the sod buckled against the splitting knife and would 

 have to be dug off, next the uncut grass and roots that passed the 

 front side cutter blades would catch on the side suspension plates 

 until the wads of grass became so big it would force the sod ahead 

 the buckle and push the whole plow into the air. After the first 

 day it looked like a forlorn hope, and after the recommendation 

 given the members of the mosquito commission as to its possi- 

 bilities, the case seemed serious. 



During the next few days many minor changes were made in the 

 suspension plates, and the elevating board shortened by three feet. 

 This improved matters but not to the extent desired, the main fault 

 being the collection of grass on the suspension blades. These blades 

 would neither cut this grass nor would the grass pass on down 

 the blades to the bottom of the ditch. 



By concentrating on the main fault the remedy was found by com- 

 bining the front side cutting blade with the suspension blade making 

 it out of one piece of steel with cutting edges of two pitches. By 

 making it in one piece the grass had no chance to double and catch on 

 a second blade and also permitted the giving of more pitch to the sus- 

 pension blade which would allow the uncut grass to pass down that 

 blade to the bottom of the ditch. 



The combined blades, then called the side cutting blades, were 

 riveted to a frame slideably mounted on the skids with a bar across 

 the forward end. This bar engaged a pin set in a guide on the skid. 

 By moving this pin to any desired hole in a series of holes in the 

 guide the depth of the ditch could be determined. We then had 

 some difficulty in keeping the saw teeth on the elevating board free 

 from roots and a sharp point was decided upon which led us into 



