FARMINe WITH DYNAMITE. 117 



under the spell of the boomer; but I fear that he is right and that a sad 

 awakening is coming to the Northwest when its dream has passed. 



If these two men are right, — and they are two whose names are 

 synonyms for authority in horticulture in the Northwest, — if they are 

 right, and 50 per cent of the orchards now planted are to be commercial 

 failures, and the Jonathans presently grubbed out of the 50 per cent that 

 remains, there will be a lot of orchard land* for sale presently at con- 

 siderably reduced prices. I think we can afford to wait. 



I am profoundly convinced that the opportunities for commercial 

 orcharding are greater in eastern Nebraska today than in the most prom- 

 ising regions of the irrigated Northwest. Every trip into that section 

 and' every investigation on the ground confirms this view. This brings 

 to me a feeling of deep and al)iding content; a feeling of confidence in 

 Nebraska as a commonwealth which will grow greater as the years pass, 

 whose people are dwelling under tlie shadow of a great destiny in the 

 potential empire of peace and plenty. 



The Chairman: The next paper will be by Mr. Edward Lewis, of 

 the Dupont Powder Company of St. Louis, Missouri. His subject will be 

 '•'Farming with dynamite." I understand that Mr. Lewis has no paper, 

 but he will give you an address on the subject that has been assigned to 

 him. 



FARMING WITH DYNAMITE. 

 Edward Lewis, St. Louis, Missouri. 



Ladies and Gentlemen — The name of Dupont suggests something 

 rather scary, and the name of dynamite is also scary, but we do not en- 

 deavor to teach anybody to use it in the manner that the McNamaras 

 used it, so I hope that you will bear with me while I endeavor to tell you 

 what we are trying to do along this line. 



We are trying to teach the people to farm with dynamite; we are 

 trying to teach the farmers, through their associations and by demon- 

 strations, that dynamite can be used to help him improve his crops, and 

 as some people have said to make two blades of grass grow where one 

 has grown before. 



Now we do not say that that can be done everywhere, or in every 

 case, or every day, but what we do say is that farms cau be improved, 

 and made better, and I think that I can show that this contention is at 

 least reasonable by what I have to say. Take for instance in the indus- 

 try of tree planting, the dynamite used in that is composed mostly of 

 nitrate of ammonia. Now if a person has not used this before he does 

 not know much about it. and about its effects, and it will probably make 

 him sick the first time, or for the first two or three times he uses it. In 

 using it in tree planting it is exploded underground, and when that hap- 

 pens it of course distributes its properties through the subsoil, and be- 

 cause of the properties it contains it is very beneficial. 



I was very sorry I did not have a moving picture machine here so I 

 could show the different illustrations, and different things about which J 



