Iht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
795 
A  Bi^  Job 
of  Dynamite 
Ditching, 
WHERE  THE  NEED  EXISTED.— If,  two  years 
ago,  you  had  dropped  into  the  little  com¬ 
munity  in  Western  New  York  and  whispered  to 
some  of  the  growers  of  crops  on  the  muck  lands 
that  a  comparatively  few  pounds  of  dynamite  would 
clear  out  their  main  drainage  ditch,  so  that  there 
would  be  a  condition  of  comparative  safety  from  the 
heaviest  rain,  they  would  have  told  you  that  this 
was  the  story  of  some  one  more  interested  in  selling 
dynamite  than  it  was  a  practical  procedure  for  dirt 
farmers.  But  such  was  tire  situation,  however,  and 
it  was  not  regarded  too  seriously,  even  by  the  leaders 
of  the  community. 
PAST  EXPENDITURES.— During  the  time  that 
this  area  had  been  operated  there  had  been  a  good 
of  1920  the  county  agent  of  that  county,  together 
with  the  South  Lima  Farm  Bureau  Community  Com¬ 
mittee,  secured  the  services  of  a  demonstrator  to 
blow  five  rods  of  ditch.  At  that  time  the  dynamite 
now  used  for  all  kinds  of  weather  had  not  been  per¬ 
fected.  It  seemed  desirable  to  wait  until  Spring,  as 
it  would  mean  considerable  saving  of  money  to  blow 
the  ditch  by  the  detonating  method.  The  five  rods 
of  ditch  were  then  left  until  Spring,  when  observa¬ 
tions  were  made  of  its  condition.  When  the  ditch 
was  left  in  the  Fall  it  was  ragged,  as  all  such  ditches 
are  just  after  they  are  blown,  but  after  weathering 
through  the  Winter  the  sides  were  smooth  and  the 
job  had  every  appearance  of  being  successful. 
COUNTING  THE  COST.— Now  the  real  job  began, 
men  were  insured.  This  was  done  as  a  matter  of 
precaution,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  there  was  not 
as  much  danger  as  for  one  to  ride  on  an  ordinary 
highway  at  50  miles  an  hour.  The  first  operation 
was  to  divide  the  men  into  groups  that  could  work 
economically.  This  unit  was  found  to  be  three. 
Each  squad  followed  a  guide  rope  in  every  case,  so 
that  there  would  be  as  little  variation  as  possible. 
They  first  stretched  two  ropes,  as  indicated  in  Fig. 
311.  The  squad  then  spread  out  a  short  distance 
from  each  other  along  the  ropes,  and  placed  the 
dynamite,  as  shown  in  Fig.  312.  The  squads  always 
left  a  stick  with  a  flag  attached  at  the  place  of 
starting,  so  that  there  was  no  possibility  of  any  par¬ 
ticular  piece  of  ditch  getting  an  overcharge  of  dyna- 
Organizing  the  Work.  Fig.  311 
Getting  Ready  for  the  Dynamite.  Fig.  312 
many  thousand  dollars  spent  in  digging  and  clean¬ 
ing  out  the  main  ditch  which  ran  down  through  the 
center  of  the  area  of  approximately  700  acres.  The 
farmers  were  not  in  a  state  of  mind  to  accept  any¬ 
thing  that  called  for  an  expenditure  of  money  for 
the  ditch,  because  the  last  time  they  had  pulled  to¬ 
gether  there  had  been  expensive  litigation  because 
of  inequalities  and  excessive  expenditures.  On  the 
other  hand,  some  growers  had  been  flooded  enough 
times  so  that  their  financial  condition  would  not 
allow  them  to  go  ahead  as  rapidly  as  they  would 
have  liked.  There  were  also  a  few,  whose  land  did 
not  actually  touch  the  ditch,  who  could  not  see  the 
necessity  of  contributing  their  bit  to  swell  a  fund 
and  too  much  cannot  be  said  at  this  point  on  the 
value  of  a  real  community  leader,  one  whose  opinion 
is  respected  and  whose  judgment  is  sane  and  can 
see  through  further  than  the  result  of  today.  This 
community  had  such  a  leader  in  the  person  of  Henry 
Griffrath.  He  called  the  community  together  and 
worked  out  with  the  county  agent  what  such  a  ditch 
would  cost.  The  cost  items  considered  were  dyna¬ 
mite  and  caps,  bars,  insurance  on  the  men  who  han¬ 
dled  the  dynamite  and  any  possible  damage.  These 
figures  were  presented  to  the  community,  and  after 
much  consideration  they  decided  that  the  whole 
matter  was  worth  while,  but  a  few  were  not  willing 
to  proceed  unless  each  man  receiving  benefit  bore 
mite.  There  was  sufficient  water  in  some  parts  of 
the  ditch  to  enable  the  box  of  dynamite  to  float  and 
follow  the  workman.  In  the  demonstrational  strip 
there  were  three  lines  strung,  tout  in  the  final  job 
it  was  found  that  the  two  rows  would  give  enough 
throw  to  carry  the  dirt  over  the  bank.  The  lines  of 
dynamite  were  30  inches  apart,  and  loads  of  %  lb. 
each  were  placed  IS  inches  apart. 
DETAILS  OF  THE  PLAN.— It  was  found  that 
two  woikmen  going  at  a  fair  rate  of  speed  could 
make  holes  as  fast  as  one  man  could  place  the  dyna¬ 
mite.  These  holes  were  approximately  28  inches 
deep.  Jig.  313  shows  a  close-up  of  three  men  work¬ 
ing  and  the  third  placing  the  dynamite.  There 
Placing  the  Cartridge.  Fig.  313 
The  Dynamite  at  Work.  Fig.  311t 
large  enough  to  reach  the  required  amount.  What 
this  group  of  men  needed  was  exactly  what  they 
got.  They  wanted  to  be  shown  that  dynamite  would 
do  the  trick  and,  once  being  shown,  they  wanted  a 
•good  hard  rain  in  order  to  scare  a  few  of  the  num- 
her  ■who  were  hanging  out  to  an  appreciation  that 
now  was  the  time  for  action.  They  got  both.  A 
demonstration  strip  of  ditch  was  blown  and  allowed 
to  remain  over  Winter  so  that  the  growers  might 
see  what  its  condition  was  after  weathering.  Then 
the  rain  came  down  hard  enough  so  that  there  was 
an  added  interest  taken  by  some  who  had  been  in¬ 
different. 
A  WORKING  DEMONSTRATION.— In  the  Fall 
his  part  of  the  expense.  The  way  this  was  finally 
worked  out  was  that  each  man  paid  an  assessment 
per  acre  to  cover  the  cost  of  the  job.  All  did  not 
agree  to  this,  but  there  were  enough  to  carry  through 
the  plan  successfully.  The  outlet  of  the  ditch  led 
through  some  of  the  muck  area,  through  open  pas¬ 
ture  fields  and  through  a  piece  of  typical  swamp 
woods.  The  bottom  of  the  ditch  varied  from  heavy 
blue  clay  to  gravel.  In  length  there  were  two  miles 
in  all  of  these  varying  conditions. 
ORGANIZING  THE  WORK.— The  method  of  or¬ 
ganization  of  the  work  itself  will,  no  doubt,  be  in¬ 
teresting,  especially  to  those  who  contemplate  doing 
a  similar  job.  As  has  been  heretofore  indicated,  the 
seems  to  be  no  general  rule  to  follow  as  to  the  length 
of  strips  that  should  be  blown  at  any  one  time. 
This  depends  on  the  character  of  the  ditch.  It  is 
generally  the  practice  to  place  the  strips  up  to  the 
nearest  bend  and  then  blow.  It  is  desirable  to  blow 
as  long  strips  as  possible,  as  the  ends  of  the  strips 
are  apt  to  cause  small  dams.  These  should  be  raked 
out.  The  longest  stretch  on  this  particular  job  was 
1,200  feet,  as  is  shown  in  Fig.  314.  This  picture 
shows  the  dirt  and  smoke  filling  the  air,  and  for  a 
time  was  quite  realistic  of  the  conditions  of  the 
fate  war.  If  the  readers  will  look  back  to  Fig.  313 
they  will  see  how  the  complete  ditch  appeared. 
THE  EXPLOSION. — One  feature  of  the  ditching 
