Norwich bulletin., 1911-09-23
f@l R1a EEKA} EE(zK= {;} @ \ 1THE FARMERS TALK1 Z A TO FARMERS R>1
THE ADVANTAGES OF DYNAMITE. IN FARMING

muchness. I've even enjoyed the pie lures recently published of men plow- ing with automobiles As I looked at them I said to myself: Now, if we could only hitch a good, lively thun- derbolt and a streak of lightning to our blow, then we WOULD be going some.' And, by love, the very next day I found that we had done it. Per haps not exactly lightning flash, but something just about as quick and as powerful.
 Have you ever heard of farming with dynamite? It seems that some desperate brother, tried from long and unavailing struggles with his hard pan soil which no blow would break up for him, suddenly bethought him. self of the dynamite which he had been using to blow out stumps with. He tried a charge or two. Then he went to town. bought whole box of the condensed earthquakes and dynamited an acre of his StuDborneSt SubSOil. The result outfiushed his rosiest hopes. The land, which had never before pro- duced enough to pay for the labor put on it, suddenly woke up and begat crop that was the wonder of the neigh borhood. Other farmers sat up and took notice. Next season saw @ run on the nearest dynamite factory which astonished the proprietor, and, when
 
 country resolved itself into sort of combined earthquake and volcano. For some days landscape and atmosphere intermingled in roaring medley Of splitting earthquakes and squatterlng eruptions. Then the dust and debris settled. The aStenished subson found itself torn apart and turned 'tother side up. Instead of remaining a lump iSh and massive stratum, impermeable to root growth, it had been turned into 9 scrap-heap among whose in numerable interstices even the softesL rootlet could push it's exploring way.
 The success of this somewhat radical experiment has led to further testing of dynamite as an aid to the farmer. It has been found that it's value is not confined solely to hardpan soils. It has fields of usefulness elsewhere Especially has it proved a promising helper to the orchardist and tree plant CT. Down in Louisiana, where they raise pecans-if only they can get the trees which they set out to ive-one man set over a thousand trees a year ago, using dynamite to make the holes. He reports that the percentage of loss on his young trees (which are among the most difficult to set so they will live) is thus far almost nothing. A Georgia peach grower, w. w Stevens, of Mayfield states that he gains two
 
 is, he gets as much fruit at four years old from tree planted with dynamite as at six years old from one spaded in.
 Mrs. John RawIey, an apple orchard owner of Oregon, is so enthusiastic ever the advantages of dynamite that she now has 30 acres of trees, every one planted by it's aid She writes that in November. 1910, she had occa- sion to remove two filler trees seven months after setting. One had been put in a spaded and one in a dyna- mited hole. The spade-set tree had fine bushy clump of roots about foot long. The dynamite-set tree had roots going down fully three feet and great spreading mass of medium and short growth roots and rootlets. The difference between the two, as seen side by side, was convincing. Mrs. Rawley has got so she even uses dy- namite for Subsoiling her flower beds. One result among others, is that she can now bring hardy peonies into tofore they had failed to flower until the second or third year.
 When one stops to think bit, he can readily see reason why a tree set in a dynamited hole ought to do better than one set in a spaded exca- vation. The spade removes only what soil is in the dug-out pit. When the tree is set and this loosened earth put back on and around the roots, it is ill fine shape for root growth-as far as the sides and bottom of the pit, but no farther. The roots run into an almost solid wall of packed soil on every side as soon as they have extended to the limits of the spaded hole But dyna- mite rives the soil to a greater depth than a spade can profitably reach, and over wider area Moreover, as water is the principal plant food, in which all the fertile elements of the soil must be dissolved before they can be ab- sorbed by the roots, the larger the area through which these roots can spread, the greater the amount of plant food which is brought within tkeir reach.