CONDUITS, PORTAGE, ETC. 
289 
From the spout a main pipe or hose communicates to a pipe extending 
ncross and above the rows and bearing branches descending in the 
Alternate interspaces between 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 unnecessan 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 by another con- 
struction set forth in this report the main arms are either partially or 
wholly tlexile in their joints or segments, or both, and they may stand 
at an angle with each other, or continuously parallel, as desired. In 
those cases the parts are supported by a bar or frame which may or may 
not have runners or legged-whecls other than those of another vehicle 
combined therewith, and the descending branches are also usually made 
partially or wholly 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 orat 
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- 
ample is illustrated in Plate XX XIX, Figs. 4 and 5. AVhilc 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. 
Referring to Figs. 1 and f>, / is the descending pipe, y its fork, which 
may be braced by an additional piece, and this may serve as a weight, 
y z, to hold the fork from being lifted or tilted, or as a slide-plate, ey, 
beneath, to prevent the ground from weiring 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 
XL1X]. 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 parts being about 90°, and the eleva- 
tion of the part, f, which is inserted in the descending branch, is about 
45° from the horizontal base-plane. Such a fork offers the least possi- 
63 CONG 19 
