128 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



further difficulties with the uncut grass passing down the side 

 blades. This grass would pass down the blades and catch on the 

 point. To overcome this, pieces were cut from the side of the ele- 

 vating board just back of the point. This space left the front edge 

 of the side blade clear and allowed all except the very long grass 

 roots to pass down the blades. 



By this time we had gotten through the above mentioned bad 

 piece of meadow. We had cut about 20,000 feet of ditch which was 

 accomplished only after the hardest kind of work by the men. Up- 

 on reaching firmer meadow we had a better chance to see what the 

 splitting knife would develop. It was known when the knife was 

 put on that there would be many places in the marsh where it would 

 not be needed, as experience had taught us that meadow would be 

 found where a rotten strata would occur from 10x18 inches below the 

 surface and in such case the knife would be unnecessary to split the 

 sod into two ribbons. (See picture No. 2). Imagine our surprise 

 when we found the sod was delivered to the surface in two pieces. 

 Then we realized that in shortening the elevating board we had 

 caused the 30 inch mass of sod to take a very sharp bend upward. 

 This necessarily caused a longitudinal strain on the upper and lower 

 parts of the mass and a resulting shear that made the separation. 

 This was very encouraging as the splitting blade was not very sat- 

 isfactory and required continual cleaning to get results. The knife 

 therefore was discarded. 



The "A" frame was still in use, but it was made of wood and at 

 times, if not set just right, would kick out and hit one of the men. 

 This was changed to channel iron construction and hinged to the 

 skids in such a manner that it could be used as a drawbar as well 

 as for lifting the plow from the ground. 



We have now almost reached the plow as it is today and a compari- 

 son of the old and the new plow will more clearly demonstrate the 

 superiority of the new. 



With the old plow we used a two-man spade to dig about 15 feet of 

 30 inch ditch into which we placed the plow by main force and 

 awkwardness. This movement required from 15 to 20 minutes. 

 With the new plow a ditch 10x18 inches and about 3^ feet long was 

 dug by one man. This ditch could be dug between the skids and 

 did not require man power to place the plow in the ditch, merely the 

 dropping of the elevating board into dug ditch which did not take over 

 five minutes. The cutting of the ditch took the same for both plows 

 which was governed by the speed of the power plant. It is, of 



