This is about 17 cents for each yard of earth removed.
In soft ground, the caving in of the banks will require a much greater mean width than 12 inches to be thrown out, and, if the accident could not have been prevented by ordinary care on the part of the workman, (using the bracing boards shown in Fig. 28,) he should receive extra pay for the extra work. In passing around large stones it may also be necessary to increase the width.
The following table will facilitate the calculations for such extra work:
| CUBIC YARDS OF EXCAVATION IN DITCHES OF VARIOUS WIDTH. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length of Ditch. | 12 Inches Wide. | 18 Inches Wide. | 24 Inches Wide. | 30 Inches Wide. | 36 Inches Wide. |
| Yds. Feet. | Yds. Feet. | Yds. Feet. | Yds. Feet. | Yds. Feet. | |
| 1 Yard. | 0 12 | 0 18 | 0 24 | 1 3 | 1 9 |
| 1 Rod. | 2 12 | 3 18 | 4 24 | 6 3 | 7 9 |
Men will, in most soils, work best in couples,—one shovelling out the earth, and working forward, and the other, (moving backward,) loosening the earth with a spade or foot-pick, (Fig. 41.) In stony land, the men should be required to keep their work well closed up,—excavating to the full depth as they go. Then, if they strike a stone too large to be taken out within the terms of their contract, they can skip a sufficient distance to pass it, and the digging of the omitted part may be done by a faithful day workman. This will usually be cheaper and more satisfactory than to pay the contractors for extra work.
Fig. 41 - FOOT PICK.
Concerning the amount of work that one man can do in a day, in different soils, digging ditches 4 feet deep, French says: "In the writer's own field, where the pick was used to loosen the lower two feet of earth, the labor of opening and filling drains 4 feet deep, and of the mean width of 14 inches, all by hand labor, has been, in a mile of drains, being our first experiments, about one day's labor to 3 rods in length. The excavated earth of such a drain measures not quite 3 cubic yards, (exactly, 2.85.)" In a subsequent work, in a sandy soil, two men opened, laid, and refilled 14 rods in one day;—the mean width being 12 inches.[21]
"In the same season, the same men opened, laid, and filled 70 rods of 4-foot drain of the same mean width of 12 inches, in the worst kind of clay soil, where the pick was constantly used. It cost 35 days' labor to complete the job, being 50 cents per rod for the labor alone." Or, under the foregoing calculation of $1.50 per day, 75 cents per rod. These estimates, in common with nearly all that are published, are for the entire work of digging, grading, tile-laying, and refilling. Deducting the time required for the other work, the result will be about as above estimated; for the rough excavation, 3 1/2-rods to the day's work, costing, at $1.50 per day, 43 cents to the rod.
Grading is the removal of 2 or 3 inches in depth, and about 4 inches in width, of the soil at the bottom of the ditch. It is chiefly done with the finishing scoop, which, (being made of two thin plates, one of iron and one of steel, welded together, the iron wearing away and leaving[pg 157] the sharp steel edge always prominent,) will work in a very hard clay without the aid of the pick. Three men,—the one in the ditch being a skillful workman, and the others helping him when not sighting the rods,—will grade about 100 rods per day, making the cost about 6 cents per rod. Until they acquire the skill to work thus rapidly, they should not be urged beyond what they can readily do in the best manner, as this operation, (which is the preparing of the foundation for the tiles,) is probably the most important of the whole work of draining.