It was fortunate for the Leitrim-man that he was accustomed to ditching, though it may be questioned if the pores of his body closed again that day, so very effectually had they been opened.

Indeed, the double operation of ditching and embanking is in some cases performed by a single machine, (a nondescript affair, in appearance half-way between a threshing-machine and a hundred-and-twenty-pound field-piece,) drawn by six, eight, or ten pairs of oxen.

That was the proper way; ditching first, then plough and sow.

No, he would not come in, hadn't the time; he was going to start ditching that same evening.

The ground is still workable, and Isak goes down one day with Sivert, ditching and draining the road.

In the spring, when the bogs were thawed some depth, Sivert came down from Sellanraa to Storborg, to start a bit of ditching for his brother, and lo, Andresen himself went out on the land digging too.

Pleasant days for them both, draining and ditching, getting up long arguments for fun, and working, and arguing again.

The witch who lived in the house appeared and asked: "What are you ditching there for, Mr. Ape?" "Oh, madam," was his answer, "have n't you heard the news?

By employing squads of immigrant Irishmen for ditching and other severe work he kept his literally precious negroes, well housed and fed, in fit condition for effective routine under his well selected staff of overseers.

Much of the incidental work was also done by tasks, such as ditching, cutting cordwood, squaring timber, splitting rails, drawing staves and hoop poles, and making barrels.

On a Louisiana plantation W.H. Russell wrote in 1860: "The labor of ditching, trenching, cleaning the waste lands and hewing down the forests is generally done by Irish laborers who travel about the country under contractors or are engaged by resident gangsmen for the task.

Robert Russell made a similar observation on a plantation near New Orleans, and was told that even at high wages Irish laborers were advisable for the work because they would do twice as much ditching as would an equal number of negroes in the same time.

Furthermore, A. de Puy Van Buren, noted as a common sight in the Yazoo district, "especially in the ditching season, wandering 'exiles of Erin,' straggling along the road"; and remarked also that the Irish were the chief element among the straining roustabouts, on the steamboats of that day.

It is well established that sugar planters had systematic recourse to immigrant labor for ditching and other severe work.

The labor expended in ditching has been immense, but it has been confined wholly to tapping the smaller streams.

Ditching with dynamite.

Ditching with dynamite.

THAYER, E. L. Ditching with dynamite.

Ditching with dynamite.

Ditching with dynamite.

THAYER, E. L. Ditching with dynamite.

Hedging and ditching, if done properly, is hard work, especially if there is any grubbing.

The only difference is, that the farmer, who pays for the hedging and ditching, is the person to whom the consequent increase of production accrues, while the government, which is at the expense of police officers and courts of justice, does not, as a necessary consequence, get back into its own coffers the increase of the national wealth resulting from the security of property.

Fifteen plows running, five hands piling logs, four hands ditching, six hands in trash-gang.

Draining, ditching, circling, hedging, road-making, building, etc., may all be effected to a greater or less extent every season.