Use of Tractor Equipment on the Mississippi River Levees

MAGNITUDE of the Mississippi River flood-control work and the huge quantities of earth that must be moved in the building of levees in the South require tractors of the largest commercial sizes and varied dirt-moving machines and wagons to perform the work expeditiously and economically. The author describes briefly the types of tractor and tractor-operated equipment used by the contractors as he observed them at work on two visits to the South.

How several hundred tractors are regularly used for hauling crawler-track dump wagons, pulling blade graders and elevating graders, pushing bulldozers and supplementing tower machines and drag-lines is described, and the author pictures vividly the severity of the work, which requires continuous operation for 20 to 22 hr. per day, seven days per week, and the crude provisions for and methods of maintenance, as a consequence of which the machine casualties are heavy.

As the engineers who design and build this automotive equipment seldom have an opportunity to see it under such operating conditions, the paper may supplement their present information and aid toward improvements in mechanical designs.