Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1912-05-10
DYNAMITE IN ORCHARD
Should Be Done Only Where Tree
Is to Be Planted.
Advantage Is That the Roots viii
Pentrate to Greater Depth and
Irrigation VIII Go Deeper
Resistance to Droughts.

The first thing TO be known in
planting an orchard is how to prepare
the ground to be planted The ground
should be treated just as If We were
going to plant it TO any grain crop,
such as wheat, cats, barley or corn.
All trash should be removed and the
ground should be well pIowed How
deep to pillow must be determined by
the nature Of the soil Some soils are
naturally loose and open. In such
cases the blowing need not be very
deep for the simple reason that such
soils cannot be materially changed by
blowing, writes F. Walden in the Den
yer Field and Farm But when the
ground is compact and hard 1t should
be loosened up to the depth OF a foot
or more. In many such cases if the
stirring pillow could be followed by
narrow subsoil pillow, much good
would be accomplished II there is
hardpan within one or two feet Of the
surface. then the use of dynamite is
to be recommended.
1t would not be best to dynamite the
whole field to be planted for that
would be attended With much labor
and expense. Instead OF this whole
sale dynamiting. let the ground be
laid of and the place where each tree |
Is TO be set can be dynamited The |
advantage in dynamiting where each |
tree is to be set is that the roots will /
penetrate 10 a much greater depth !
he frrs1
deep as the roots. A tree in such po-
sition will resist drought much better
than those planted over hardpan for
these have all their roots near the sur
face and will readily dry out
friend of mine told me about a
peculiar case OF the benefits of dyna-
hitting that happened to man in
tract there was occasionally a big
stump that was blown out with dyna-
mite. The object in using dynamite
was simply 10 get rid of these stumps.
with no thought of benefiting the con-
iition of the land The ground was
planted to apples and all parts re-
,eived the same kind of cultivation.
I
hat now and then a tree was more
rigorous than its neighbors and in a
ew years was almost twice as large
That was not all. for when the or
hard cana into bearing. these Wig
'rcus trees bore large and better ap-
lies. At first this whole matter was
mystery 10 the orchardist but final
I
pen examination he found that each
ne Of these vigorous trees stood c
there a stump had been blown out
/ was found upon examination that
Tater went very much deeper where
ne soil had been broken up by the
ynamite and as a result the moisture 4
bout the lower roots lasted through Z
he dry season and thus the trees
lere remained vigorous and contin-
ed TO grow while the other trees in
lie orchard looked sickly and the c
uit on them was small and poorly Il
,lored II
From this and from lessons learned "
: observation I am convinced that in 1
any cases it would pay large returns Of
We dynamited the ground where a
.ch tree is to be planted | have "
me places in my OWL orchard where o.
is method Of dynamiting would be al
acticed if 1 were again setting the "
ound TO apples A low grade of pi
Mantle should be used. A hole Pc
uld be drilled with a crow-bar to re
e depth of three or four feet and NJ
2 charge exploded ar the bottom I CT
We had no experience in this matter of
d cannot give the cost Of such VIZ
irk, but l am told by those who nc
i'm to know that the expense is
ht K