Vol. LXIX. No. 4075 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 3, 1910. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
A HORSE POWER DITCHING MACHINE. 
A Great Help in Farm Drainage. 
A little over four years ago Mr. A. G. Yates pur¬ 
chased 360 acres of land, now known as the Elm Tree 
Farm, near Charlotte, N. 
Y. We decided that the 
best foundation for maxi¬ 
mum results from the 
soil would be a thorough 
system of drainage. Hav¬ 
ing used steam ditchers, 
as well as other less com¬ 
plicated and less expen¬ 
sive machinery for cut¬ 
ting ditch, I set about to 
investigate the merits of 
horse power machines, 
that would not involve 
too large an outlay of 
money and would be a 
convenient machine for 
the average farmer. I 
wanted to use for power 
the horses which are us¬ 
ually standing in the barn 
doing nothing while til¬ 
ing operations are in pro¬ 
gress. As to the benefits 
of tiling, it is needless to 
state that no land can be 
successfully farmed to its 
maxi m u m production 
without being properly 
drained, and many farm¬ 
ers who think their land 
does not need tiling 
would be surprised at the 
increased yield per acre 
if they would adopt til¬ 
ing. Our soil has about 
two feet of hardpan sub¬ 
soil, that is almost im¬ 
penetrable, and without 
a ditching machine work 
would have been very 
slow and tedious on ac¬ 
count of such hard dig¬ 
ging. Our trenches were 
dug to an average of 
about three feet deep ex¬ 
clusively with a horse 
power machine, and un¬ 
der very trying conditions 
on account of the hard- 
pan subsoil. The trenches 
shown in the picture. 
Fig. 473, were dug fully 
three feet deep, requiring 
no hand work whatever. 
The machine was sold to 
us under a guarantee to 
cut 300 rods of tile ditch 
per day to a depth of two 
feet, operated by six 
horses. I gave it a very 
careful trial, and found 
that we could dig many 
more rods of ditch in a 
day than claimed, and do 
this in our very hard 
soil, in which I had my fears of the machine’s ability 
to do any work. We placed our laterals about 40 to 
75 feet apart to a depth of about three feet, running 
into mains of six and eight-inch tile. In our ditch¬ 
ing no handwork whatever was required, as the ma¬ 
chine finished the ditch. In a very short time an 
operator of average intelligence can handle the ma¬ 
chine, so that very little if any bottoming is necessary. 
A man of average experience in laying tile should be 
able to bottom and lay from 75 to 100 rods of tile in a 
day, while the machine will cut over 300 rods. It will 
thus be seen that the machine will open sufficient ditch 
to keep three or four men bottoming and laying the tile. 
Figuring an average man at $2.50 per day, bottom¬ 
ing and laying 100 rods in a day would cost 2E> cents 
per rod, while the cutting of the trenches would cost 
nothing if a farmer uses his own horses to do this 
work. Should the owner of a ditching machine hire 
his teams at a cost of $12 per day it would only cost 
from three to four cents per rod to cut the ditch. 
Adding to this 2^2 cents 
per rod for bottoming, 
would make the entire 
cost of the ditch not to 
exceed 5J4 to 6 Vz cents 
per rod, which is a sav¬ 
ing from 15 to 20 cents 
per rod in different lo¬ 
calities. Based on a day’s 
operation at a minimum 
of 300 rods per day, I 
figure that with the use 
of our horse-power ma¬ 
chine we have saved no 
less than 15 to. 20 cents 
per rod in the cost of our 
ditches, which is a saving 
of from $45 to $65 per 
day in the operation of 
the machine over the cost 
of doing the work by 
hand or hiring it done by 
a steam digger, or letting 
it out by contract. The 
operation of the machine 
is very simple, it is 
strongly built, and com¬ 
ing in contact with a 
stone does not in any 
way affect the machine. 
If a stone is small enough 
it will bring it to the sur¬ 
face, and if it is a larger 
stone the operator can 
raise the cutting points 
and pass over it, leaving 
it to be removed by hand. 
Figuring the difference 
in the cost of our tiling 
by hand or to let it out 
by contract to be done by 
machinery was sufficient 
to pay for the machine in 
every 30 acres we tiled. 
Our ability to do our til¬ 
ing at such a low figure 
of cost with a horse¬ 
power machine would 
leave a large amount of 
money that could be used 
in the purchase of tile 
that otherwise would 
have gone into the cost 
of digging the trenches, 
and this saving alone is 
not all that operates in 
favor of digging the 
ditches with a machine, 
as another great item of 
gain came through our 
ability to do such a large 
quantity of ditching in 
such a short space of 
time, and thus get earlier 
benefits through our in¬ 
creased crops. Our yield 
of wheat this year was 42^2 bushels per acre, rye 33 
bushels, with an immense amount of straw, and a 
large acreage of hay, going over three tons per acre. 
While we saved this money by using the horse ma¬ 
chine, the value of increased crops resulting from drain- 
THE HORSE POWER DITCHING MACHINE AT WORK. Fig. 473. 
THE DITCHING MACHINE OUT OF THE GROUND. Fig. 474. 
