The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1872-07-26
Agricultural.
clearing Land Of Rocks and stumps.

Clearing L0nu oil ROCKS hnu SJunpS'
Wo havo often been surprised in
travelling through the various parts OF
the country to see 80 much valuable
ground taken up by rocks and stumps'
DO farmers who have their ground en-
numbered in this way ever calculate
how much they are losing each year,
not only in the ground 80 occupied,
but In the wear and tear of agricul-
tural implements, used in cultiveting
the same, besides the great inconveni.
ence in working among them. There
arc many thousands of farms of the
richest soil, and in other respects de-
sirable, having such rocks everywhere
within few rods of each other, which
the owners ore trying to cultivate ac-
cording to the rules given by agricul-
tural writers--that is, to buy ploughs,
cultivators, harrows, rollers, moving
machines, horse-rakes, tedders, and
other labor. saving machines, and try
TO use them, instead of using the spade,
grub hoe, and other hand implements,
such as were formerly used in New
England, and even now are used by
many. suppose farmers and writers
upon agriculture have found 1t stub.
born. necessity that timber should be
cleared away before the land could be
cultivated at all, but they appear to
think the rocks and stumps are no OBJ
stacle, or that they are fixtures like the
mountains, and immovable. SO they
say nothing about them, but let them
remain; to plow, and hoe, and culti-
vate, and NOW, and rake about as best
thcg can. Now, l am opposed to this
way Of doing things. When L first
bought the farm now occupy, asked
the advice of several farmers as to the
be-. way Of getting rid OF the rocks,
and they all advised sinking as the
cheapest and best way to dispose OF
them. But I soon found it would not
pay, because to sink rocks takes from
five hours to two or three days. work
c0ch an operation 80 expensive that
not one rock in one hundred thousand
ever has or ever will be removed by
that or any other process. Farmers
alone, and not knowing any better way,
do nothing with them, and suppose
that to be the reason why the farmers
let them remain to disfgure their land.
With the above machines no man need
be afraid to attack any reasonable sized
rock or stump. l find that stumps
make very durable fence, but certainly
not a handsome one. l believe that
last season l took more rocks out of the
ground and put into wall than was ever
put into wall in this State.
Now l suggest land what 1 say l
know TO be true, because l have dug
rocks for the last two seasons) that there
are machines in this part of the country
with which two men can take out of
the ground and put into wall one
hundred rocks in one day, weighing
from two to ten tons each, and that
there is a man in this town who has
averaged his forty rocks day for two
seasons, and that the wall so made is
worth moro than the cost of clearing
the land; and l know there are hund-
ASuo Va lt'l liuo WLilCH, Oil eCCOuut VI tuC
rocks, are being overgrown with trees
or turned into sheep pastures, which I
could with machine clear of the rocks
for less expense than the timber was
originally taken of, and that there is
no way for farmers to make money
faster than to put their rocks into fence.
Fencing material is at the present
time lin most of the older settled States)
getting TO be a question Of Importance,
to almost all the farmers. Good fencing
timber is getting scarcer every year,
either iron wire, hedge or stone. Where
rocks are abundant, they are certainly
the cheapest and best, for once well
laid, they will last life time. -Ameri-
can Stock Journal.