Vol. LXIX. No. 4058 NEW YORK., AUGUST 6, 1910. weekly, $ 1.00 per year. 
FARM DITCHING BY MACHINERY. 
A New Business for Farmers. 
APPEARANCE OF A FIELD DITCHED BY MACHINERY. Fig. 326 
us waiting before we could prepare it for crops. 
About five years ago we began laying mains through 
the hollows and connecting to these parallel laterals 
The question of how much land a person should every 30 feet. We thought it would be possible to 
have in order to make it profitable to own a ditching put in 500 rods each season, but were unable to ac- 
machinc will depend upon 
several conditions; how 
much of the land would 
require under-draining; 
for what kind of agricul¬ 
ture it is to be used; the 
condition of the soil and 
whether the owner is 
capable himself, or has 
help which is capable of 
handling the machine. In 
order to write a compre¬ 
hensive article it seems 
that the conditions which 
have led up to the pur¬ 
chase of my machine 
might possibly illustrate 
this matter better than 
anything else. My father, 
who is the old gentleman 
holding*the tile hook, as 
shown in the picture, 
Fig. 327, bought the farm 
on which we are living 
43 years ago. Soon after 
he ditched what, at that 
time, were the wet parts 
of the farm, hiring the 
labor done by profession¬ 
al ditchers and using 
ditching plow, running 
the lines here and there 
across the low part of the 
fields. Following this, 
spurs have been run out 
as seemed to be neces¬ 
sary from time to time. 
The line carried on at 
that time was general 
farming, during which 
period the land was de¬ 
voted to grass a consider¬ 
able part of the time. 
About 20 years ago I 
began to carry on the 
farm operations in part¬ 
nership with my father, 
and we began raising 
more fruit and cultivated 
crops. The land did not 
prove to be well enough 
drained to get good re¬ 
sults, and many seasons, 
when conditions were un¬ 
favorable (the most un¬ 
favorable being the wet 
Spring followed by the 
dry Summer), we would 
lose not only our labor 
but heavy applications of 
fertilizers which we were 
using. After making con¬ 
siderable study of the 
drainage question, I de¬ 
cided to put in a more 
thorough system of drainage, not confining ourselves 
to the lower ground but running the ditches parallel, 
thereby making a complete system. We found that in 
the case where we under-drained the wetter places 
these would become the drier, and those which had 
been dry before would be the ones which would keep 
THE TILE DITCHING MACHINE AT WORK. Fig 
complish so much. About two years ago I saw a 
description of the ditching machine here pictured, 
Fig. 327, and immediately entered into correspondence 
with the manufacturers, and finally bought a machine, 
under the condition that they should send a man who 
would unload the machine and operate it for one 
week; if the machine proved satisfactory, I should 
accept it. The cost of this machine was $1200 and 
freight. I was satisfied with the machine, and have 
never been sorry that I made the purchase. 
We began operations about November 20, 1908, and 
since that time have put 
in over 2,000 rods of 
ditching on our own land 
without hiring much ad¬ 
ditional labor. The ditches 
are dug very much bet¬ 
ter than can be dug by 
hand, unless the hand 
digging is done by line 
and a great deal of care 
used in the smoothing. 
In the operation of the 
machine a man is re¬ 
quired who understands 
handling a steam engine, 
and is a good all-round 
man with machinery. The 
machine digs the ditch 
complete at one opera¬ 
tion, digging from the 
shoalest desired to four 
feet six inches in depth, 
and a perfect grade can 
be carried regardless of 
the surface of the land, 
but within the limits 
from the surface to the 
depth of four feet six 
inches. This is done by* 
setting a line of targets, 
and keeping the digging 
part of the machine ad¬ 
justed to this line of 
targets. 
The land upon which 
this machine may be op¬ 
erated is any ground 
upon which there is. suffi¬ 
cient firmness to carry 
the machine and main¬ 
tain traction power, the 
same as with any trac¬ 
tion engine. The soil may 
be dug from quite a wet 
soil underneath to the 
driest and hardest pos¬ 
sible condition that clay 
soil attains. We have dug 
through springs by lay¬ 
ing down planks to carry 
the machine, bringing up 
water and mud in bucket¬ 
fuls, and from that to 
clay soil which was so 
dry and hard that it 
would break into small 
fine cubes. In quicksand 
it is necessary, some¬ 
times, to put on shields 
to hold the banks up, be¬ 
tween which the tiles may 
be laid and blinded as the 
machine passes along. 
As to the operation of 
od it , 
the machine in lands cov¬ 
ered with rocks and bowlders, the method used 
would be very similar to that in hand digging. Un¬ 
less the ground is very hard and dry the rocks, rang¬ 
ing up to the size of a man’s head and sometimes 
larger, can be removed by a skillful operator without 
serious damage to the machine; but in case a large 
