The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-07-02
FARMING WITH DYNAMITE.

FARMING WITH DYNAMiI T..
| According to Rene Bache, the new
est thing in agriculture is farming
with high explosives. It is cheaper. IN
/ the long run, to pillow with dynamite
at all events in occasional years
and there is no such satisfactory way
| to get rid of stumps as to blow them
out OF the ground.
/ The work of digging holes for fence
posts is cheapened and hurried along
| by the use of small dynamite cart
ridges. made especially for the pur-
/ pose All that is necessary
is to drive a crowbar down
/ to within six inches of the
desired depth. and the cartridge
dropped to the bottom and set OF.
does the rest. One should not "tamp
the charge.
In planting fruit trees dynamite is
great help. A suitable cartridge,
buried a short distance below the sur
face of the ground, will excavate IN
stantly as large hole as man can
dig in an hour. Incidentally, the ex-
plosive loosens up the earth for many
yards around, giving the roots better
chance to spread.
| If, in addition, every other year,
small charges are exploded midway
| between the trees and four or five
feet below the surface. the output OF
fruit, it is claimed, is greatly aug
mented, because thereby the soil is
kept in loose and open condition. SO
that moisture percolates through 1T
more freely, and the tree roots have
better chance to spread
Ordinarily blowing turns over the
same old soil year after year. and de.
crease of output is prevented only by
rotation of crops and expensive fertil-
izing. With dynamite, on the other
hand, it is possible to break up the
ground all over field to a depth OF
two to three feet for less than the cost
Fertilizing improves only the top soil,
dynamite renders available all the
moisture and elements of growth
4 throughout the entire depth of the
blast.
In the case of WORKOUT farm (the
has been worked out,) the high ex-
4 plosive turns up fresh and fertile soil
from underneath. BY this means, in
many instances, land worth $40 an
acre has been augmented fivefold OF
even tenfold in value.
al m he Ground
satisfactorily to depth exceeding
eight or ten inches. Eventually hard
stratum, sometimes called pillow hard
PAM OF "plow sole" forms just be
low the layer of soil to which the
pillow reaches. This must be broker
gin to fail. Then too, it often hap
pens that land has only thin sur
face soil, underlaid by an imperviou!
subsoil, and will not produce gooi
crops unless the latter be broken up
: Blasting subsoil is new idea, tina
farmers, with wonderful results in tn,
way of increased crops. Not only Il
this done with land already under cul
tivation, but also for the purpose o
Transforming into productive field
!. land which was previously worthless
A Georgia farmer writes of a phenom
1 email yield of watermelons, weighin
! fifty to sixty pounds apiece, obtaine
on land blasted with small charges O
2 dynamite in bore holes two and hal
$ feet deep and ten feet apart. Anothe
e in South Carolina, placed his charge
D only four feet apart, and corn grow
I on the area thus treated was fifty pc
0 cent taller than on unblasted ground
0 with fuller ears and firmer grains.
y The most recently discovered wa
8 of saving money by the use of hig
t explosives is in the blasting of ditche
q and the dynamiting Of swamps. Poss
y bilities in this direction are especial
d obvious in Louisiana and certain othe
l. parts of the United States, where. !
II the aggregate. there are somthing lik
: 100000 acres of swampy land
n which would yield magnificent crop
g The cost, by ordinary methods, woul
e. be prohibitive, but dynamite will di
e. bitches cheaply and rapidly throug
n any swamp which man can penetrat
Soon after the outbreak of our We
with Spain. Prof. Charles E. Mu1
T roe of Washington, who is probabl
o. the greatest authority on explosive
20 living, made certain experiments
y the digging of military trenches vii
d, dynamite and "dovite." Intereste
IN with him in the matter was Fran
e. Hitchcock, now postmaster genera
- but then connected with the depar
On ment Of agriculture. The experiment
le were performed on Analostan Islam
an in the Potamac river, with some d
an gree of secrecy-one consequence b
ut ing that the plant was finally raid,
sc by the police, who had been inform'
II that Spanish spies were at some di
ST. bolic mischief on the island
he The upshot Of the matter was tn
re the digging OF such trenches wi
ng dynamite proved highly PRACTICABLE
RAJ and. II the war had lasted longer, til
at method would doubtless have be
nd used. BY such means a trench of Al