Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-08-23
DYNAMITE ON THE FARM.
Explosive Coming Into Quite General
Use For New Purpose.

AS war gives way to peace, dyna-
mite is turning to useful vocations,
and instead of working destruction
is joining the movement back to
/ the farm" Dynamite will lift a
stump, a rock, or almost anything in
the neighborhood, and the profit
from its use may eventually lift the
mortgage, if we are to believe its
friends. Explosives have long been
used in blowing up refractory OBJ
structions on the farm, and even in
splitting rails, but it is something
new to hear Of digging bitches,
planting trees, rejuyenating orch
ards and stirring up imperviCus sub
soil with blasts of dyna:llte. Yet
/ it is actually now in VIE use for
these purposes. 1t is said that it is
% per cent cheaper and many times
quicker to dig ditch with dynamite
than with a machine. The farmer
merely punches holes in the ground
three feet deep and two feet apart,
inserts little explosive in each, and
touches off one of them. All the
other charges follow the first, and
there is the ditch.
bitches long or short, deep or
shallow, are necessary on every
farm, and should always be dug
with explosives whether they go
through rock, shale or only earth.
The ditching which pays best is that
which drains swampy land. There
are about seventy million acres of
this land in the United States, much
OF which would bear magnificent
crops if drained. The cost Of drain
ing by the usual method OF digging
bitches by hand or machine, has
been almost prohibitive, with the
result that this land is still lying
idle. Now that it has been found
that dynamite will dig bitches
through any swamp where a man
can penetrate, no matter how thick
the vegetation covering it may be,
there is no reason why the large ma
jority of this seventy million acres
of swamp land should not be cult
waited
The idea of blowing with dyna-
mite is stranger still, but it appears
that the explosive is not to be used
for ordinary blowing. It's value is
in breaking up the "hardpan'' or
hard subsoil, which staryes crops
and trees. The pillow fails to reach
this hard layer and break it up, so
ii must be blasted.
Blasting subsoil has been practic-
ed for some years by a few progress
sive farmers in different parts of the
country. These men have had won
derful results in the way of increas-
ed crops on land already under cul- |
tivation, and in Transforming into
excellent growing land that which !
would have been worthless without
dynamite.
1t is only lately, however, that the |
benefits from blowing with dynamite |
have become generally recognized. |
The Department of Agriculture, the !
various agricultural colleges, and |
men prominently identified with
farming in different parts Of the |
country, are now making a careful !
study of this question in order to
determine the strength, quantity, |
and kind of explosives, the most eff
fective way Of using them, and the
ueptn ana spacing ol the holSS, ioi /
best results. Farmers everywhere 1
are experimenting on their own re-
sponsibility Many are already |
that subsoil blowing with |
explosives will be common custom I
in a few years, and will represent |
of dollars in increased |
crops from lands already under cul- |
tlvation; and more millions from
land now producing nothing but
weeds and are considered entirely
worthless.
In the orchard dynamite is used
to excavate the holes for planting |
young trees and for stirring up the
earth around older trees that are
beginning to fail.