PRATT'S DITCH DIGGER,
Patented by Pratt & Bro., of Canandaigua, is attracting much attention. We have not seen it in operation, nor have we seen statements which satisfy us that it is just what is demanded. It is stated, in the Country Gentleman, to be incapable of cutting a ditch more than two and a half feet deep. A machine that will do so much is not to be despised; but more than one half the digging remains of a four-foot ditch, after two and a half feet are opened, and we want an implement to do the lowest and worst half. It is stated that, in one instance, a ditch, 60 rods long, about two feet deep, in hard clay, was cut with this machine, worked by two horses, in five hours.
We trust that the enterprising inventors will perfect their implement, so that it will open drains four feet deep, and thus meet the great want of the public. It is not to be expected that any such implement can be made to operate in ground full of stones and roots; and inventors should not be discouraged by the continual croakings of those sinister birds, which see nothing but obstacles, and prophecy only failure.
Fig. 89.—Pratt's Ditch Digger.
The drain plow was first introduced into Scotland by M'Ewan. The soil in his district was mostly a strong unctuous clay, free from stones. He constructed an immense plow, worked by 12 or 16 horses, by means of which a furrow-slice, 16 inches in depth, was turned out; and, by a modification of the plow, a second slice was removed, to the depth, in all, of two feet. This plow is expensive and heavy, and incapable of working to sufficient depth.
Mr. Paul, of Norfolk Co., England, has lately invented an ingenious machine for cutting drains, of which we give an elevation.
