404 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



into fences which will last a life-time, and then the pine stump farmer can 

 take as much comfort as any other farmer. 



Mr. Martin: Which is cheaper, dynamite or a machine for stumping? 



Mr. Ladner : I would not use dynamite, as it splits the stump and renders 

 it useless for fencing. 



Mr. Burnett: Twenty-five cents won't pull the stumps, and dynamite is 

 dangerous. I own a Chamberlain machine, and have two acres of pine 

 stumps, and it takes a ten acre lot to hold a stump after it is pulled. 

 Cleaning is a much worse job than pulling. I can pull for ten cents, but 

 after pulling it is impossible to get rid of the stumps. They are vile fences, 

 serving as nests for weeds and brush which draws the strength of the soil 

 for 12 to 20 feet on each side. 



Mr. Ladner: I let a job of pulling and cleaning at 25 cents and the man 

 made money at it, and when pulled, I would not let any one have the stumps 

 for the taking. Stump fences can be kept clean of weeds. 



Mr. Lincoln: The cost of pulling depends on the soil and age of the 

 stumps. In heavy June grass pasture it is worth two or three times as much 

 to clean them as in sandy land, and green stumps are worse to clean than 

 those that have been dead for ten years. 



Mr. Burnett : I can't raise good crops where the stumps came from. 



Mr. Smith: As to the looks of stump fences, it is a matter of taste. I 

 would never buy a farm with the best stump fence ever made. They last 

 forever and a day it is true, but let Canada thistles get in, and how can you 

 contend against it? 



Dynamite costs from 20 to 50 cents per pound, and a stump two to five feet 

 in diameter will need one to two pounds, and even that is not sure to do 

 thorough work. The question is, will it pay at present prices to make pine 

 stump land farms at 50 cents per acre for the land and 25 cents per stump for 

 pulling, a total of about $12.50 per acre on the average. These stumps will 

 ultimately be worth pulling to make tar and turpentine of. 



Mr. Ladner : It is with many of our people not a question of choice, but of 

 necessity. They are here, and they have got to get rid of the stumps. They 

 have got to go, and we who live here and have to make our living out of these 

 lands have got to dispose of them in order to live. 



Mr. Burnett: A relative of mine left a position as a laborer in southern 

 Michigan and came here and took a pine stump farm, and he is now inde- 

 pendent at home and earning his living, and is not dogged around by 

 others. 



Mr. Blair: In Newaygo county we have a man on a stump farm who is 

 winning wealth. He now has a self-binder, when at first he was in a wilder- 

 ness of stumps. Their stump fences are straight as a line. There is no use 

 in running away from Michigan obstacles to seek betterment in Dakota 

 blizzards. The better way is to make the obstacles do the moving and stay 

 ourselves. 



OUR SOILS. 



BY HON. L. D. WATKINS. 



Read at the Brooklyn Institute, Feb. 15, 1889. 



Geologically speaking, our soil was formed in its present state by the 

 glacial drift. This drift soil was formed, before our peninsula was clothed 



