244 USE OF DYNAMITE AND TONITE IN FORESTRY. 



cases diy fine sand is the proper material. Sand fills every small 

 cavity without hard driving with the stemmer, and in this way 

 prevents accident. All other instructions are given with each 

 package of the powder, and should be rigidly adhered to. 



To trench land by this process would be too expensive under 

 ordinary circumstances, but in extraordinary cases it could be 

 profitably done. Basins formed by a thick formation of moorband 

 pan, on which scarcely stunted grass will grow, may be caused 

 to yield good timber, or even grain crops, at a moderate expense. 

 By exploding a 2 oz. charge at 8 or 10 feet apart, any bar will 

 give way, and be internally mixed with the soil and subsoil, and 

 in such a manner as not to reunite again. The charges should be 

 placed about 8 feet apart and about 2 feet below the surface, 

 which would trench the soil about 5 feet deep, with scarcely a 

 trace at the surface. A single trial will illustrate this better than 

 a volume written on the subject. 



When large ditches have to be run through hard soil, rotten 

 rock, or other material which needs the pick, the work can be 

 performed at half the usual cost by these explosives. The same 

 remark applies to the running of roads through rock or hard soils. 

 Pits for strai n ing posts can be made in half the time, and at one- 

 third less cost than by mattock and pick. To clear land from 

 which a crop of timber has been lately felled is a difficult process, 

 even with these applications, and they cannot be used with profit 

 to clear the whole surface ; but it may be advantageous to use the 

 powders under the largest roots. These would be blown out, and 

 the soil prepared to receive a plant. In most cases, however, 

 unless some of the roots are previously cut, the charge will expend 

 its power only below the root, and lay the roots bare. But they 

 can be easily cut out afterwards. 



The most profitable uses to which these explosives are applicable 

 are : the planting of standard and ornamental trees and the 

 breaking up of pan and such places as require a great amount of 

 picking. A single trial will convince those who are most doubt- 

 ful of its utility ; and any person with ordinary intelligence will 

 work it after having read the instructions. As already stated, 

 full instructions are sent with every package, and so long as these 

 are attended to, no accident can happen. But the least mistake 

 is attended with evil, and often with fatal consequences. None 

 of these powders are so dangerous as gun or ordinary blasting 

 powder, and few persons are afraid to use the latter. 



