Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1917-10-10
DEMONSTRATION
n Operation at Phelps Last
Week-Very Beneficial to
Man With Stump Farm.


.onsiIerable attention to the devel-
opment of agriculture in northern
Wisconsin made statement to the
fleet that there is room on the cut
.rer lands of Wisconsin for two mil
lion settlers, and that the possible
farm crops thus produced could fur
oisb the northern part of the Mississ-
ippi valley with food stuffs. And all
his could be done without cutting
the land into such small farms as to
,aressitate what is ordinarily called
intensive cultivation.
With this statement in mind one
can ret an idea of the extent of these
ruf-over lands and also, of their high
fertility. How long will it be before
these acres will be doing their part in
satisfying a nations wants?
It may be interesting to some to
know that the state of Wisconsin has
taken this matter up and is now con-
Quoting land clearing operations
through the northern part of the state
under the direction of the engineering
department of the college OF agricul-
ture. The Land Clearing Special has
been operating since July 18th, its
crew having conducted investiga-
tjonal and demonstrations work at
fourteen places in thirteen different
counties.
During the past week, October 1st
to 9Th, these men worked on the
Gunner farm near Phelps. Here was
seen in active operation one of the
largest collections of land clearing
equipment ever brought together.
The purpose of this work is two
fold: during the forepart of last week
very complete data was secured on
the work done by the stump pullers
and the dynamite crew in clearing
the plots assigned to them. During
the latter part of the week much of
the time was spent in demonstrating
the various methods of land clearing
in use today. 1t is hoped that by the
early part of next year the data Sc
cured, which will be invaluable to
the settler, will be available in bulle-
tin form. All those who have any
stump land whatsoever should not
have missed visiting any of these
demonstrations. Both the stump
pullers and the dynamite crew were
in charge of experts who answered
all questions and illustrated things by
actually doing them.
Within the last few years several
Improvements have been made on
stump pulling machines and equip
ment which have been a big step to-
ward taking the drudgery out of land
cleaning. OF these, perhaps the take
up is the most important. This is a
device which takes up the slack in the
cable so that it is not necessary to
wind up the entire length of cable
every time a stump is pulled. After
pulling the stump. enough slack is
loosened from the takeup to enable
the operator to fasten on to the next
stump without unwinding tie cable
on the drum of the puller. A person
can only appreciate the saving in
time and labor brought about by this
simple device by seeing it in oper-
alton.
Many of the stumps at Phelps were
s. badly tnp-rotted that they could
not he cd In the ordinary manner;
that is, by means of choker placed
around them. These were pulled by a
root hook. Some very interesting
root hook work was seen on the dem~
onStralion field
Another thing which the settler
should acquaint himself with is the
electric method of blasting. Ii is the
safest, easiest, and most practical
method of nsing dynamite. 1t is The
only method of blasting in which the
time of discharge is under absolute
control. By using the electric blasting
machine the charge can be distributed
making it more effective than the old