DRY LANDS AND FORESTS 131 



spective settlers that they may not be led 

 astray by specious promises. 



In this phase of Gleaning, as with drainage 

 and the reclamation of arid and semi-arid 

 lands, cooperation is effecting the most eco- 

 nomical results. Just as drainage projects 

 call for engineering feats never before con- 

 templated and as the exploitive farming of 

 the Great Plains regions gives birth to new 

 machinery, so here in the big woods area we 

 find peculiar means and methods. Most 

 primitive of these is sheep grazing in the rich 

 stump pastures, paying returns on the land 

 over the period required to rot out the deep- 

 rooting stumps. With the active exploitation 

 of this district, however, has come its own pe- 

 culiar machinery, notable among which is the 

 power stump-puller, which operates on the 

 stumps as a dentist is advertised to extract 

 teeth easily and painlessly. Dynamite and 

 giant-powder are used as well, and where 

 cooperation is the rule whole townships are 

 being rapidly stripped and mellowed. Just 

 as the prairies are rich with the countless gen- 

 erations of molding grasses, so here the stiff 

 clays have been mellowed for ages on ages 

 by decaying leaves and such a range of crops 



