Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-31
MAKING STUMP N G

MAKING STUMP FENCES.
A Creation That is Pleasing tn Some Ar
tisttc Taste and Useful to the Farmer.
One of the most noticeable features
of the farm lands in this vicinity,
where low hills and valleys make the
scenery beautiful, is the stump fence.
There is an. Indebtedness of outline
and awavy irregular;ty of construction
about a stump fence that entrances an
artist of the Delsartian school, but the
stump fence here is the outgrowth Of
necessity, and not of artistic taste.
When the land was cleared it was
fenced with rails and the ground be-
tween the stumps was planted
with corn and wheat and pota-
toes. After. a time the soft wood
stumps, such as Eastwood, rotted
away, but fifty season of rain and
nov had no more effect on the pine
stumps that dotted these fields than q
spring shower has on a ducks back.
At first the farmers tried to burn out
the stumps, but the wood charred owe
and the fire went out, and then the
stump got waterlogged in the next
rain, and all the ingenuity of a Ver-
mont Yankee couldn't set them on fire
after that. The farmers tried blasting,
but akegof powder put under the heart
of a six-foot stump only served to
split it open and leave the two or
three parts apparently as firmly en-
beddcd as they were before. Finally Q
machine was devised for pulling out
bodily the stumps which had res sted
the elements for half a century. It was
a simple affair. Three beams, seven
by eleven inches large and nineteen
feet long, were placed in the form of q
pyramid, with their tops united in a
heavy casting that had a big cast-iron
nut in its center. These beams were
suitably braced about one-third of the
way from the top. A cast-iron screw
twelve feet long and five inches in
diameter a down through the big nut
in the casting and was prolonged by
means of a heavy wrought-iron rod to
within two feet of the ground, where
the rod terminate in two hooks. When
a stump was to be pulled this big frame
was placed over it. Then q hole was
dug under the largest visible root and
q big chain was put under the root and
secured to the hooks on the screw rod.
An able-bodied horse was then hitched
to q long lever connected with the nut
at the top of the timber frame. When
the horse began to travel around the
frame the screw began to rise and
something had to give way. That
something was usually the stump, but
occasionally the chain broke or the
screw stripped its threads. AS the
stump raised, the dentist, as the man
who managed the machine was called,
walked around it, and iabbed a big
iron crowbar down through the sod.
That's to let the air into the hol-
low," said Farmer Kelly, one of the
} best known stump dentists of the
ty, yesterday, as he repeated the opera
ton around the roots of a big stump
that slowly rose out Of the ground.
"We'd be lifting against fifteen pounds
to the square inch. besides the weight of
, the stump, if we were to make a
t vacuum down there, you know"
AS the stump came out of the ground
a chain called a wrapper was put
around it and the screw rod to keep it
from canting over, and then all hands
virorouslycleaned the dirt from theroots
3 with picks and crowbars that were
spoon-shaped at one end.
[ "We get Sl.25 for each stump pulled
, and put in the fence. The best days
work on record is $21.25; the worst,
; one stump. That was six feet in di-
= ameter and weighed about two tons.
: It | fled more dirt than 1 can estimate
: with it. When the stump is out and
: cleaned, it is trimmed a bit, and then
Q roileu on to a sort of a mud boat and
! dragged to the fence line. The broad,
fiat tangle of roots faces out from the
field to be fenced and forms a barrier
:. that no preaching colt or critter ever
4 tries to pass. The manufacturer
: charges S16O for the iron parts of the
machine, and if the purchaser has not
. the skill to make the wooden parts he
can buy them all ready for business
for $40 more. Within the last few
! years dynamite has been used with con
! S derable success to shatter the old
a stumps, but it is dangerous to handle
I and makes a cool many failures, leav.
!. ing the stump partly split and more
. difficult to pull Than before. Besides
that, a shattered stump is no good fol
: fencing. Stump machines came il
when rail fences rotted out, and they
h fill the vacancy cheaply and efectual
y w. W1llink IN. ~ Cor. N. Y. San
t "Catskin Earls."