USE OF DYNAMITE AND TONITE IN FORESTRY. 243 



cient room is made for a plant to grow well. It is its peculiar 

 action that so thoroughly breaks up moorband pan ; the action of 

 the explosive is downwards and horizontal, and in very few cases 

 (except a slight cracking of the soil around the spot where the 

 powder exploded) does it come to the surface. Experiments 

 prove that on land prepared to receive plants in the manner 

 described, the surface drainage is greatly assisted in all soils 

 resting on a retentive subsoil, especially on pan and hard clayey 

 bottoms. It is in such soils that the explosives will be found to 

 be more economical than any other method yet tried. 



The cost of planting by this method is at first considerable; 

 but taking into account that ordinary trenching is not half so 

 beneficial for the after-growth and development of the roots, it 

 will be found cheap, indeed only a fraction of the cost of trench- 

 ing. To plant an acre of standard or ornamental trees at 20 feet 

 apart, 108 spaces are required, and the preparation of them in all 

 soils alike, would cost 44s. 6d., including the whole outlay for 

 explosives, detonators, and fuse, and labour of preparing and 

 firing the charges. With the necessary implements, one man and 

 a boy can prepare an acre in a day ; but in wet weather the fuse 

 is apt to get wet at the end. The implements required for the 

 operation are a round iron bar about 5 feet long and \\ inches in 

 diameter, with a ball on the upper or striking end, and a point on 

 the other similar to the point of the bar used by shepherds for 

 their net stakes, the bar to have a slit below the ball, 1 inch wide 

 by § of an inch, to receive a key (used for withdrawing the bar 

 when it becomes body fast); an iron hammer or a mallet from 

 10 to 12 lbs. weight to drive the bar to the required depth ; a 

 small pair of nippers to squeeze the detonator on to the fuse as 

 directed by the companies who supply the powder ; and a small 

 wooden stemmer to pack the tamping. Any careful person can 

 perform the work, which is as follows : Exactly where a plant is 

 to be placed, a hole should be made by driving the bar about 18 

 inches into the soil, exclusive of the tapered point ; the vacancy 

 caused by the point to be filled up previous to charging. If in a 

 dry soil, thirty to fifty, or even more holes, should be pierced 

 before charging ; but if under water, or in a wet soil, each bore 

 should be charged immediately on withdrawing the bar, and so 

 soon as a few are charged they should be exploded. The reason 

 is that when dynamite is used in a cold situation it freezes in a 

 short time. Under water no tamping is necessaiy, but in other 



