Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company Records Collection

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Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company Records Collection

Farming in the Great Black Swamp was never easy. Water-logged clay soils remained after the forests were cleared. Improved drainage was a requirement if you wanted to increase your crop yield and your income. Accurately graded ditches were needed for open drainage, pipeline trenches, or placement of underground agricultural drainage tile; ditch digging was slow-going, backbreaking manual labor. Enter James B. Hill, whose revolutionary mechanical ditcher could be operated by just two laborers greatly reducing time and expenses. Thousands of miles of underdrainage tiles were laid between 1890 and 1920 in the Black Swamp area alone; an early model in Findlay has been designated an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.

Center for Archival Collections, MS 380
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