The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1911-09-15
,MTrSG AWAY THE FARM
Frs TROUBLES.

Frs IkUCDLES'
.., Grill the terror Of the IN
Dna snd supposed by them to be
iatea' IN the frightful havoc
IlaI ssful o. Else il biz blasting opera
war, u - the management OF ex-
0ns lluo ~ last finding It's greatest
errs, Il - The humble arts of peace.
rpose - farmer has discovered
Fds A !lL.aad Of being the awful men
y, Dat lnsI y9ta and limb, and good for
ii Y NM 70 wreak useless destruc-
Voter Othlns most wholesome service
! lassot ol, ID No. ont the stumps and bould-
siSs pIg "+ burden his land, as well as
7 hr III 49, bie bitches for irrigation,
y sslns swamDs and Transforming
i. r2lIin l:,.+aa into the most productive
Y les7 bis property, and actually
~. ol 49, III ground and cultiVating
M, LOVING ords IL there is any other
ee!tee 4tion on a farm where labor alone
W., IT, IN be the only means OF sur
rsS snrtinp II. it is pretty certain before
att roma ingenious student OF the
~ ~ JILL ,s ~ explosives will discover that
tlcs aLl, Will do it far better and
llE 49, abeanly than under old methods.
s9 % Wv jay. drnanite does all these things,
~ - furthermore it brings under CON
les III ~ the farmer land that he could
r ps possibly reclaim otherwise. For
N L.tance the swamp land on the av-
80 farm cannot be drained by ord
.aTr methods except at the almost
w. --abibirire cost Of constructing elab-
!, p.ota ditches and drainage systems,
N M aven this is not practicable IN
g WV there is a natural descent to
csrry of the water. Even afterward,
ma land is often SO full Of brush and
,-sas that there is further great ex-
, nanse before it is finally ready for
/. cultivation.
But along comes the man that
Knows how, sticks u few innocent
Iooking dynamite cartridges into au-
gar holes below the water, blows the
everlasting stufflng out of the hard
nan on which the water floats, and,
behold! the water sinks out of sight,
and the land is ready for clearing.
Or else, If this Is not sufficient, he
Dants his cartridges in a row run
ming away from the swamp, touches
hem off, and he has ditch that will
accommodate good sized creek. And
in all this the farmer has probably
been to less than one-fourth the ex-
pense Of drainage by ordinary means,
and with incalculably less labor. In
deed, such development is not likely
10 cost more than five dollars an acre,
unless there are unusual conditions.
All this makes easily possible the
reclamation of the seventy million
acres of swamp land in the United
States, which has soil Of amazing fer
tility once it is exposed to the warm
influence of the sun.
One Kansas farmer blasted a row
of holes across the lower part Of a
forty acre swamp on his farm, even
where the water was three feet deep,
which drained it at once, and the first
year ne raised forty bushels of oats
10 the acre, and since then has been
harvesting four crops of alfalfa a
year.
The same methods are employed in
the digging OF irrigation bitches, a
very costly proceeding with men and
teams, but vastly cheaper with dyna-
mite And the latter has the added
advantage Of taking care Of every
thlng IN its path, whether rocks,
trees or hardpan.
One of the hardest problems that
have confronted agricultural students
in the last few years has been what
NSuAu NC dOAC Will LnC great areas
Of logged off land, so full of stumps
as to make cultivation impossible,
and seemingly Of no more value than
poor grazing ground for sheep
Dynamite, however, is solving this
problem; for it will tear out the
stumps and shatter them into fire
wood, without any other labor than is
required to bore a few holes, i'm the
wood, and all at one-eighth the cost
OF man and team labor, This was
SHOWN In experiments made by the
Long Island Railroad, which removed
hundred stumps for sixteen cents
apiece, which would have required
tnree men thirty-three days, or an
average cost to the stump of over a
dollar and thirty cents. The dyna-
inter and one helper blew out one
hundred and fifty stumps in a day.
Even the Douglas fir stumpsi in the
Tar Northwest, about the toughest OF
ordinary commercial woods, Of over
iour feet in diameter, have been
O!asted out at cost Of a dollar and
Hlteen cents apiece. Instances are
SHOWN where land worth twenty dol
iars an acre was cleared of its stumps
tor twenty-five dollars and then sold
lot one hundred dollars an acre.
Indeed, loggers are now using dyna-
mite to considerable extent in fell
ing timber; particularly in the cy-
press tracts OF the South, where the
wafer prevents choppers from getting
a. the trees. Other lumbermen say
tnls method is much cheaper in all
oralnary cases, and preferable, now
lnat intelligent insertion Of the dyna-
mile cartridges into the base of the
Tree enables them to make it fall in
any direction desired. The blast lifts
.ae entire tree foot or two above
ground.
Farmers are also getting rid OF
huge boulders in their fields by shat
'eFlng them with dynamite, and then
carrying OF the pieces a boulder
weighing ten tons can be removed
with single pound Of the explosive.
One of the rather curious effects or
using dynamite to make the holes for
planung fruit trees is that these trees
pear far more quickly and prolifically
than those put into holes, dug with