The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1912-04-04

enough to burn freely in the row, in
which case they were fired where
raked.
Working the Soil.
We then went over the land with a
peg-tooth harrow with the teeth set
straight, which brings up another crop
of fine roots not caught by the spring
tooth harrow, and these are raked up
with a horse rake as before and
burned or hauled OFF, This places the
land in readiness for seeding, and il
the seasons is late enough to sow fall
grain | drill in deep about one bushel
of treated seed, and, if grass is wanted,
following the grain, it is broadcasted
after the drill and narrowed in
If the land is to be cleared in the
spring, summer following will give
greater returns than spring sowing of
either grain or grass. !.
Where land is intended to be set in
fruit, more labor is expended in soil
preparation than for grain Or grass.
In blasting the large stumps the
charges are placed several inches
deeper and every visible root is ex-
tracted before filling the holes. The
same method of blowing, narrowing
and raking is used, but after the sur
face of the first blowing is fairly clean.
the ground is rolled with loaded
steel roller, after which a leveler is
run over the surface to fill up any
depressions and cut off the knolls.
The ground is then plowed second
time, two Or three inches deeper than
the first, and narrowed and raked as
before This should leave the ground
n good, smooth condition for plant
ing. l do not think trees should be
3et in land that has not been planted
wv ce, and one or two years cropping
and working of the soil is still bet
ter.
In my own operations l always blast
every tree hole for fruit trees by max
ing a hole three feet deep with an or
binary crowbar handle and drop in a
half or quarter stick of dynamite, with
fuse and cap attached-this lOosens
up the ground for several feet around
and gives the tree better show to
grow. The accompanying illustration
shows the first years growth of apple
trees and strawberry plants on land
prepared in this way. The trees and
berries were. set the third week In
May and photographed in November
following.
| have tried every method of land
clearing that l have ever seen men
toned in the farm press of the north
west during the last ten years, but
the slow method mentioned in the
fore part of this article, viz: Pasturing
your stump land and pulling the small
ones each year with team and chain,
or cable and pulleys, will be found by
far the cheapest method. The few large
ones that do not decay readily can
either be burned in the dry part of
the summer or blown out with dyna-
mite at little cost. | am satisfied the
average pine land on the benches in
Stevens and Pend Oreille counties in
Washington and KOotenai and Bonner
counties in Idaho can be cleared by
the farmer himself at an expenditure
of not exceeding $25 per acre, during
all Of which time he can take money
crop from the land.
The char-pit method did not prove a
success with me on the red soils, al
though I believe it can be successfully
applied on clay soils. The red loan
is so fine in texture that it would in
variably sift through, and very few
farmers have heavy enough sod
available with which to bank the
stumps
A stump-burning outfit was pur-
chased in the spring of 1910 that had
been fairly successful on the coast, but
1 was unable to remove the stumps
with this machine as cheaply as with
either powder or power
Stump-pullerS, as a rule, have not
proven as economical as either power
or engine, but the smaller sizes will
be found convenient adjunct to the
man who has not help available and
must do all the work himself
The slow action of the stump puller
in pulling the stump from the ground
leaves much more earth attached to
the roots than is the case where a 81
milar stump is pulled with the quick
jerk of the engine, and the cost of
digging off this earth and shoveling it
back into the hole is the chief COM
plant of this notified. Nearly as eff
cient service can be secured with a
good pulling team hitched to a small
cable run through a single and double
snatch-block, and at much less cost.
Whatever method of pulling is used,
a small charge of powder discharged
under the stump while the pulling ten
sion is on the cable will be found the
cheapest, quickest and most satisfac-
tory method of freeing the earth from
the roots and will not litter the sur
face of your field with a mass of in
fertile soil that it will take years to
neutralize.
niHaraa& Pain&e a& NiAAu