244? MACHINE FOR ROOTING UP THE STUMPS OF TREES. 



InAance. In an eflate in Savoy, I was fubjected to thefe inconve- 



niences, from the avarice of the proprietor who had felled a 

 great number of large trees, and fawed them off clofe to the 

 roots, thefe were oaks, walnuts, and chefnuts, which grew 

 in the meadows and ploughed grounds, and he difpofed of 

 them as timber in planks and fire wood, without taking any 

 care' to have them rooted up at the fame time, which would 

 have been then more eafy, by the common practice of ufing 

 the trunk as a lever. 



Attempt to blow When I came into poffefiion of this eflate, I forefaw that I 



them up by could by no means avoid rooting up a great number of flumps 

 gunpowder. J , , • , ^ , • . » 



that Were very injurious to every kind of cultivation ; and to 



avoid the long, troublefome, and expenfive labour of digging 

 great trenches, which are ufually required to be made, in 

 order to bring up the fort of roots, I thought I might em- 

 ploy the force of gunpowder. This attempt perfectly fuc- 

 ceeded, by means of a little machine of iron I had forged, of 

 which I here join a plan, fection, and perfpeclive view, which 

 fhews the manner of placing it beneath the flump *. 



Defcription of the Machine* 



Machine for It confifls of a bar of forged iron, about two feet eight 



blowing up the i ncne s long, one inch thick towards the handle, and of two 

 roots of trees. . , , , , , , r 



inches towards the breech or platform. 



It is a fmall The platform which is circular, is 14 inches in diameter. 



mortar with a ^his platform ferves as the bafe of the chamber, or furnace 

 plug and handle. _ , . , • , . , . , . ,. , , . , 



ot the mine, which is three inches in diameter, and three inches 



eight lines in the length of its bore. 



* The ufe of this ingenious machine ought not to be confined 

 merely to the flumps of trees in our fields. Licentioufnefs and 

 avarice within the laft five years, have deprived our country of a 

 quantity of woods and thickets, and degraded by immenfe fellings, 

 our nobleft forefts, the incalculable fource of riches for the prefent, 

 and hope for future time. Whether thefe fpaces thus impoverifhed 

 be converted into arable ground or pafture, or whether the imperi- 

 ous necefiity or claims of pofterity fhould require that they fhould 

 again be planted with trees, the invention of Cit. Saint Victor, will 

 be a moil ufeful application to eradicate from the ground thofe roots 

 which would deprive us of a part of its product. 



Note of the editor. 



The 



