Milford chronicle., 1932-09-30
BLAST DITCH 2,7OO
FEET LONG In KENT
MAINTENANCE JOB
approximately $500 Pounds OF Dy-
Mantle Used Near Willow Grove

HdHItt tStu wear HlliOW OTONe
A ditch 2,700 feet in length, the
longest ever shot with dynamite in
Delaware and one of the longest
ever made with explosives in the
East, was blasted Thursday, Sept.
%, near Willow Grove, a small town
about IA miles southwest of Dover.
Approximately 2.300 pounds of dy-
Mantle were used. The loading and
firing of the blast were done under
the auspices of the State Highway
Department and supervised by w. d.
Ellison, drainage engineer, Bureau
of Agricultural Engineering, u. S.
Department of Agriculture.
The ditch shot was part of the
program for ditch maintenance in
Kent county for which the Legisla-
ture at its last session appropriated
$4,000 for two years. There are hun
dreds of miles of drainage bitches
in lower Delaware built years ago.
At that time land owners were or
ganized for the purpose of collecting
ditch maintenance tax. That main
tenance work was done by hand la
Dor and supervised by Overseers ap-
pointed by the organization from
their own membership. This appar
emily did not work out we'll as the
bitches were not adequately main
tanned in good drainage condition.
In fact nearly all the bitches in that
section of the State have almost
completely failed. AS a compromise,
4 70 he OF
tion of the Legislature at the last
session and an appropriation made
to improve and maintain the drain
age bitches. This ditch just blasted
was one of the main bitches and the
success of the blast in cleaning it
out makes certain that the. smaller
lateral bitches will drain well.
So far this work has been confined
to the main outlet bitches and some
90 miles will have been cleaned when
the money is spent. This 20 miles of
outlet ditch makes it possible for
many times that amount of lateral
bitches to function.
In order to get the best service
available, the State Highway Depart
ment, which had the work in hand,
sought the aid of ditching engineers
of both the United States Govern
ment and private corporations. An
agreement was made between the
Bureau of Agriculture Engineering
of the U. S. Department of Agricul-
ture and the State Highway Depart
ment in September 1881 providing
that the two services should coop
crate in carrying out the work pro-
Vided for by the State Legislature.
w. d. Ellison, drainage engineer of
the Bureau of Agricultural Engineer
ing and an associate member of the
American Society of Agricultural
Engineers, was appointed by the
Government at Washington to super
wise the work and assist in State in
this program. Agricultural engi-
neers from commercial companies
were also called in for conference
and suggestions.
AS a result the program set up by
the State Highway Department with
the assistance of the Federal Bureau
of Agricultural Engineers has been
under way for about a year and con-
siderable ditch cleaning has been
done by various methods in order to |
find out the cost and efficiency OF
each. Hand labor, cams and scoops,
tractors and scoops, dynamite and |
dredges have been used.
A survey of some of the typical
bitches in Kent county showed that |
weeds, wild raspberries, wild black
berries and green briars grow pro-
fusely along the banks. During the
growing season these grOwths OBJ
struct the bitches and greatly reduce
their capacity. 1t was recognized
that cleaning this vegetation away
by hand labor was slow and costly
Job that had to be done every year.
Some highly interesting experiments
have been made with chemical treat
ment on this vegetation, which it is
hoped, will prove less costly and
more permanent and will greatly im-
prove drainage conditions during the
growing season.
The big ditch blast just completed
and other ditch blasts have been in
.eresting because of the unusual
methods of loading which have been
required in order to arrive at the
most economical methods. This has
)een brought about because of the
sandy soil which prevails in Kent
To date experiments have
shown that the post-hole method OF
oading has been by far the most
economical and satisfactory in hand
ing this work. This method consists
If placing holes at three to five feet
intervals along the center line of the
Itch, and loading each hole with
,harge of dynamite from two and
lalf to nine pounds. These holes are
IS much as three and half to four
eet in depth. The propagated
method of firing the blast was used,
which means that one blasting cap IS
III that IS required to fire the entire
hot, the explosion of the one charge
Ietonating all the others practically
simultaneously.
WILDWOOD
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