El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-06-17

farmers usual practice to let them
lie and plow around them; but the
proper thing to do is to blow them up
Even the biggest boulder can be
broken up by a single properly adj
justed blast into fragments small
enough to be handled.
Cuts Through Rocks.
Where Arock is encountered in the
sinking of a well, dynamite. viii soon
cut through it In digging drains it
is often desirable to- remove rock, and
high explosives will do the work
cheaply and quickly. Trees may be
felled with dynamite, and even the
splitting Of logs for rails is accomp-
lished by the same means. Removal
Of stumps by blasting is inexpensive.
According to the records of the Long
of stumps in this way on its expert
mental farm, including the wages of
the men who did the work, was only
16 cents per stump.
After the stumps are all blasted
out, there remains new, rich field.
easy to cultivate and requiring no fer
tilizer to yield bumper crops. If it be
desired to remove whole tree, dyna-
mite will lift it bodily out of the
ground. and there will be no stump
left to take away. The biggest Of all
tree stumps (those of the California
redwoods) have been shattered by this
means and utterly destroyed.
Utilizing the stumps.
In the south, by the way, pine
stumps are large producers of tur-
pentine and its byproducts. Before
such material can be distilled, it must
be broken into pieces small enough to
go into the retort- The newest meth
Cd of accomplishing this is TO explode
several small charges of dynamite sim
ultaneously in a number OF augur holes
bored in the stump, the effect being
to shatter 1t completely.
Plows rarely break up the ground
satisfactorily to a depth exceeding
eight or ten inches. Eventually hard
stratum, sometimes called pillow hard
PAN" or pillow SOLE" forms just be-
low the layer of soil to which the pIow
reaches. This must be broken up. or
after a while the land will begin TO
fail. Then, too. 1t often happens that
land has only a thin surface soil, I'M
derlaid by an impervious subsofl, and
will not produce good crops unless the
latter be ibroken up.
Is New Idea.
Blasting subsoil is q new idea that
is being put into practice by many
farmers. with wonderful results in the
way of increas ed swamps Not only
is this done with land already under
cultivation. but also for the purpose
of Transforming into productive fields
land which was previously worthless.
A Georgia farmer writes of a phenom-
email yield of watermelons, weighing so
to SO pounds apiece, obtained on land
blasted with small charges of dyna-
mite in bore-holes two and one-haif
feet deep and 10 feet apart. Another
in South Carolina, placed his charges
only four feet apart, and corn grown
on the area thus treated was 50 per-
cent taller than unblasted ground, with
fuller ears and finer grains
Soon after the outbreak of our war
with Spain, Prof. Charles z. Munroe,
of Washington, who is probably the
greatest authority on explosives living
made certain experiments in the dig
ging OF military trenches with dyna-
mite and 'jovite." Interested with hlni
in the matter was Frank Hitchcock,
now postmaster general. but then con-
nected with the department of agri-
culture. The experiments were per-
formed on Analostan island in the
Potomac river, with some degree of
secrecy-one CONSEQUENCES being that
the plant was finally raided by the
police. who had been Informed that
Spanish spies were at some diabolic
mischief on the island
The upshot of the matter was that
the digging of such trenches with dy-
Mantle proved highly practicable; and,
If the war had lasted longer, this meth
cd would doubtless have been used.
BY such means a trench of any de-
sired depth can be laid open. almost
in finished state, at few minutes
notice, saving an immense amount Of
labor and much valuable time. From
this idea came that of ditching land
for farming purposes. and out of it
was eventually developed the whole
system of assisting agriculture by the
employment of high explosives.
Rene Bache.