Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-08-11
Villas COunty'S Six Land
Clearing Shows Success
MANY FARMERS GOT NEW IDEAS
ON CLEANING UP LAND
DURING MEETS

After being present at the six diff
ferent land clearing demonstrations
held in Villas county under the direct
ion of the state land clearing depart
ment assisted by County Agent Glib
son, we are of the opinion that on
the whole they did a vast amount of
good in the way of educating farmers
in the proper use of explosives and the
best ways of using tractors or stump
puIIers and handling of stumps after
they are out of the ground.
While the total acreage was not
large, still six different farmers have
piece of land ready for the pillow
and in some cases plowed that they
can put to crop next year AS we
understood it the state was not out
for the purpose of showing how much
work could be done in one day, but
to demonstrate the scientific methods
in clearing land, and most farmers
who attended could not very well
help picking up some thing Of value
to them in future operations of the
sort.
All types of soil were encountered
as well as all kinds Of stumps from
the thirty year old pine stump to the
perfectly green hardwood Generally
the area worked upon had to be
handled in different way from the
others.
For the man with capital, the 10
ton Holt caterpillar tractor did more
work and did it faster and with less
hand labor than any other method
tried However, its cost prohibits it's
use by small farmers The baby
caterpillar was next we should judge
in efficiency but that is also out of
the question for the man who needs
land Considering the difference in first
cost, the Fordson used as stump
puller and breaker has it over them
ALL With a stump properly "shot"
there are not many stumps that the
machine will not pull out and haul to
the piling ground. There, the two
pole piler worked to perfection every
where and is something that any farm
er could easily make and operate on
his farm.
At Phelps it was demonstrated that
pulling green hardwood stumps is not
practicable from the financial stand
point. At Vinegar, the same class of
stumps after eight or ten years of
decay were removed with one stick
of explosives. According to that from
experiments made on the Radcliffe
farm near town, hardwood stumps
should stand for four years or more
and then they can be pulled easily
and at much less expense.
A good many farmers with expert
ence in land clearing we're of the
opinion that particularly in the case
of white pine stumps it was preferable
to shoot them heavier than the state
demonstrators did Then not as
much time is lost in pulling the
stumps out with teams or tractors. II
seemed to us that they were right, as
often considerable time was spent in
getting the stump free from the
ground when another stick or two
would have done the work so that
it could be removed at once.
At no place was the ground in per-
feet condition for breaking, and the
tractor drawn breakers appealed to
us less than any other part of the
work. If we had land to break we
should prefer smaller pillow, not over
fourteen inches and would rather use
horses than a tractor and would have
a more satisfactory job.
Speaking of tractors, we'll say that
Hank Hanson, of Strong & Manley's
Fordson crew is a regular four horse
teamster when it comes to handling
a tractor and will get more efficiency
out of Fordson than any man we
ever saw before.
All in all, the demonstrations were
very successful, not from the amount
of clearing done, but from the edu.
eational features in connection with
them. The state land clearing depart
ment is constantly at work trying
out new methods designed to make
land clearing easier and cheaper and
we consider any community which
gets the benefit of their experience is
the gamer