Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-07-28
Villas County Clearing
Land at Demonstration
Demonstrations at Radcliffe and
I1nberg Farms Attract
Many Visitors

ings for WAS county got under way
according to schedule beginning Tues
dav morning at the Radclihe farm
north OF town.
A trip out there, just before noon
found large crowd present observ-
ing men operating stump pullers, pill
ers. shooting stumps with explosives,
one crew attaching fuses to the acre
tract that was shot at the end of the
days program Strong & Manley had
a Fordson tractor on the job and the
Holt Tractor Company were there
with two machines, the 2-ton Baby
Caterpillar and the lotion outfit, ali
doing the work they were built to
do. and we should say, doing it well.
The most interesting thing done while
the Review editor was there was the
Big Hollis demonstration of the sweep
ing process Of pulling stumps. The
hardwood stumps on the Radclige
farm have arrived at just about the
right stage Of decay so that great
many Of them can be pulled with
team. The largest ones gathered in
side the circle surrounded with a cable
however seemed to pry loose as easily
as any with the large Holt caterpil
lar pulling at the other end. The
small Holt as well as the Fordson did
equally good work on stumps within
their range of power One thirg es-
pecially was we'll demonstrated al
though it was well known before.
That is, that it pays to loosen the
stumps with explosives before attempt
ing to pull them. When that is done,
not nearly so much earth is remov
ed with the stump and the ground is
made ready for breaking much easier.
There are many farmers who can
and do no doubt, stump and clear land
as cheap or cheaper per acre than is
done at any such demonstration. They
cannot do it as fast nor as easy and
although the large and expensive equip
ment may not be practical for the
average farmer, still here is lot of
valuable information to be picked up
free at one of these demonstrations
and that is the motive Of the state
land clearing department in putting
them on
The political speeches intdrfered
somewhat with the afternoon program
so that not as much was finished as
would have otherwise been the case.
The last feature of the day was the
spectacular one of shooting a whole
acre of stumps at one time This was
done by the Trojan Powder Co.. and
was a novel but none the less success
full advertising stunt. The explosives,
caps, fuses, etc. were paid for by the
owners of the farm, the powder COM
pany merely furnishing the men to
prepare the, stumps for blasting. The
Radcliffes also paid the freight so that
although they had several acres clear
ed of stumps that day, it could not
be considered a free gift by any
means. The intention was to do some
brush breaking with the large tractor
but that did not materialize for lack
of time.
All in all it was a day well spent
by the farmers who attended and
good many carried away ideas regard
ing land clearing that will prove valu-
able to them at home.
Yesterday the equipment worked on
the Frank Imberg farm just east of
town, encountering land of a different
type and white pine stumps instead
of hardwood. That is an entirely diff
fefent proposition from dealing with
hardwood stumps and has to be handl-
ed differently The noticeable thing
about the program there was stumps
moved out Of the ground much faster
than they did some years ago when
the state land clearing department
did some clearing on the We'll prop
erty eighty rods this way. Then
there were no tractors to assist and a
number of labor saving features have
been introduced since then also, so
that it was plainly seen that a good
deal of advancement in land clearing
methods has come about in the mean
time.
Saturday, the scene shifts to0 the
Reed school house in Conover and
Monday to the town of Phelps. Then
Wednesday moves to Arbor Vitae and
close at Vinegar on Friday
At the close of the demonstrations
we hone to he able to state fully. the
number of acres cleared and the APPROX
innate cost per acre.