120 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL "SOCIETY. 



inches deep, below the grass, and it will give the desired depth, but 

 with dynamite you can do better. 



Now puncture a hole down this way. Say it is four feet, and then 

 take half a stick of Red Cross dynamite and tamp it in. The harder 

 you tamp it in, the better, for where the explosion comes it will break 

 this subsoil right where you want the force of the dynamite to work. 

 If hard pan once is allowed to have water to gather in it, or you can 

 force the moisture into it, you can rest assured it will disintegrate, 

 and you will not be bothered with it, any more, but you can not say that 

 with a clay subsoil, it will not last that way, and it will have to be re- 

 blasted every six or seven years. With the deep plowing, this top soil 

 has been worked to death, but with dynamite you can lift this dirt up, 

 •and scatter it for four or five feet on top of the hole. So in doing this 

 you get the richer and better soil on top of the worn out soil, ahd mixed 

 in with it, and thereby you enrich it. Now take it in sections of fifteen 

 feet, and you go right down the side of the field. If you have an ex- 

 plosion at all these places I have indicated, you are bound to get the 

 dirt stirred up so the water can get into the hard pan, and cause it to 

 disintegrate. 



In subsoiling lands, we generally figure there are 194 holes to the 

 acre, but to be safe, we say there are 200. We would use one-fourth of 

 a stick to each hole, or in other words that would be 50 pounds to the 

 acre. In Nebraska it is 16 cents a pound, and that would be $8.00 to the 

 acre. At 2^^ feet deep it would cost $5 for fuse, and caps at a cent 

 apiece, would be $2. That would make a total of $15 an acre. Now $15 

 an acre seems to be pretty large, but when you very nearly double your 

 crop the first year, it may pay for what you do. There is nothing we 

 can do for the betterment of our land but what ynU cost us something-. 

 There is no betterment we can put into or upon the land that will be 

 as permanent and far reaching as this subsoiling with dynamite. 



A Thayer, ^lissouri, farmer placed his dynamite about thirty feet 

 apart, and he planted his corn in the land that he had dynamited, and 

 it doubled his crop the first year. He had twice as large a crop where 

 he used dynamite, as where l\e did not use it, or on the same land the 

 year before. 



A Member: Have you any figures on the labor or the cost of putting 

 in the dynamite? 



A. One of our professional dynamiters who was here, if I am not 

 mistaken, two weeks ago, gave a demonstration on that. We gave a 

 demonstration in Centralia, Illinois, and we subsoiled nearly two acres 

 in a day. Of course, if any one wants to do a great deal of subsoiling, 

 it would be better to do more than an acre at a time, and the chances 

 are that the dealer you buy your supplies from will be pretty good to you 

 on the price. He will be pretty good to you on the price of your fuse. 

 Some of them really charge one cent when they should not. 



This is about all there is to the main discussion or talk that I in- 

 tend to give to you, but I would be glad to answer any questions that 

 any of you may have to ask. 



