American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1911-08-31
MAKE FIELD DITcHEs'
Commonly Done With Ordinary
PIow and Crowder.
Usually Made Two to Four Feet Wide
on Top and Eight to Sixteen
Inches Deep-canvas Dam
Used for Check.


Field bitches are comomnly made
In this country with the ordinary
pillow and some sort Of crowder
Or with q double moldboard pillow or
lister. On land with considerable
grade the bitches should run across
the slope and all the soil thrown
On the lower side. This can be done
by putting additional wings on the
plow to throw the soil farther out of
the ditch and by running n side
Of the crowder flat against the upper
side of the furrow and crOwding all
the earth In one direction. On nearly
level land the e~xcavated soil should
be throw out on both sides, writes w.
w. Mclaughlin in the Denver Field
and Farm. This is done by blowing
out a dead furrow or by blowing a
furrow with a double m%oldboard pillow
and clearing this out and smoothing
the banks by hand with a shovel or
by pushing the loose soil with a
crowder.
The crowder is a V-shaped drag
made Of two by twelve-inch planks,
ten or twelve feet long, steel shod.
joined at n end and beveled to
make q sharp cutting edge. The left
s.de is hinged half way back SO that
the width Of the crowder is adjust
able and the hitch is made with a
clevis in a hole half way down the
nose. A lever or a pair of handles Is
attached to the main brace to guide
the machine. Two to four burrows
are plowed and then the crowder is
used to push the soil out. bitches
are usually made two to four feet wide
D. top and eight to sixteen inches
deep. They must be partly above the
natural surface check in order that
the water may be I'LL out over the
surface.
Dams are placed in the bitches to
hold the water up and run 1t over
The lower banks. Usually twice
through a ditch with the crowder will
put 1t in good condition and a man
with a team can construct from one
to one and one-half miles of such
bitches IN a day in sandy loan soil.
Often dams for turning the water from
deld bitches are put in when the
bitches are made. Sometimes they
are made Of earth scraped from the
bottom Of the ditch with a dammer
and dumped into piles at the desired
intervals. Sometimes the earth is
taken from the bottom Of the ditch
Immediately below the dams and
when the dams are broken 1t is wash
ed back into the places from which
1t was taken. Manure Is often used,
being placed in piles in the ditch or
alongside before irrigation begins.
The canvas dam is, however, prob
ably the most common form OF check
used for turning water out of field
bitches. 1t is inexpensive, easily
made, and convenient to handle. It
consists simply of a rectangular piece
OF canvas long enough to reach from
side to side with one edge fastened
to a timber or pole, which Is placed
acioss the ditch. As a rule, there are
no permanent structures in the field
bitches In grain fields irrigated by
flooding. Gates are sometimes put in
the supply bitches but often the water
is held up in the supply ditch by tenn
pcrary dams and turned out through
cuts IN the lower bank. Water is
run IN n or more of the field laterals
at a time, depending upon the size of
the stream delivered to the irrigator.
The usual stream run in a ditch is
about n ~second-foot, or forty to fifty
inches. II water is delivered in a
Of two or three second-feet this
stream should be divided among as
many laterals. II the land is In good
condition, n nan can look after two
or three laterals and to make the best
use OF his time he should have as
large a stream as he can handle. In
flooding for grain or irrigating
meadow water is turned into one or
lore laterals and allowed to flow
to the first dam, where II IL
held up and made to overflow the low
er bank and flow over the field to the
next lateral. When this section has
enough water the dam ia
troken and the stream flows down to
the next dam. and the operation ia re.
reated until the whole field is covered
win as large a stream as he can
one man a water ten to
twenty-five acres in a day of twenty.