SORAPERS AND GRADERS 261 board about 8 ft. long and 2 ft. high, shod at its lower edge with iron, provided with a tongue for the team in front, and a platform at the rear upon which the driver could stand. During loading the driver would stand on this platform, and if the soil was at all tough, one or two more men would add their weight. Upon reaching the proper place on the embankment the driver would step off the platform and the scraper would flop over or dump automatically. A buck scraper of this size requires four horses to pull it. The material is not carried by any scoop or bowl as - with the drag scraper, but is pushed or “drifted” along in front of the blade. The modern road machine, in which the blade is supported by a framework carried by. four wagon wheels, is a development of the buck scraper. So also is the smaller leveling seraper. Fig. 2. Tongue Scraper. (Weight 120 Ib.) Scrapers in Ditch Excavation. From Engineering and Con tracting, June 23, 1909. The simplest tool, beside the pick and shovel, with which a trench or ditch can be excavated, is a scraper. In narrow trenches and ditches a drag scraper is used. Shallow trenches can be excavated entirely, excepting the trimming up, with a drag seraper, But for deep trenches, either a long run has to be made to overcome the grade, or a very steep grade has to be as- cended with the loads. This naturally makes an economic limit for this work. The writer has used drag scrapers for trenching and has found in the country that deep trenches could be exca- vated cheaply by first excavating from 4 to 6 ft. with drags, making a slope on the sides of the trench. This slightly in-