FARM MANAGEMENT 23 



in September or October, after the first rainfall or when there was 

 no danger to neighboring improvements or timber, a fire was started 

 and allowed to burn over the entire slashing, when most of the brush 

 and small logs were burned completely. The remaining logs were 

 sawed into convenient lengths, piled, and burned. After the rains 

 had softened the ground sufficiently the smaller stumps and roots 

 were grubbed and pulled out. Often a stump puller of the capstan 

 type was used in pulling the smaller stumps after they had been 

 loosened by digging around them. 



This type of stump puller is often used in clearing small tracts 

 after the stumps have been broken into several pieces and loosened 

 by the use of stumping powder, without which no clearing is under- 

 taken in the present day. The stump puller should be of simple 

 construction, strongly built. It generally consists of a drum, a wire 

 cable, and a sweep to which a team is hitched. Powder has been 

 used in all clearing operations for several years, and all methods, 

 except that of burning the stumps below the plow, are dependent 

 upon it to loosen the stumps so that they may be taken out. 



Donkey-Engine Method. Some six or seven years ago when 

 logs were down in the market and many logging outfits were idle, 

 an enterprising logger took a contract for pulling the stumps from 

 a meadow. He conceived the idea of using his donkey engine with 

 its outfit of blocks and cables to pull and pile the stumps for burn- 

 ing. Since that time many such outfits have been engaged with 

 varying success in clearing land. The usual method is to slash and 

 burn over the tract to be cleared, in order to burn all the under- 

 brush and as many small logs as possible. 



Then all the stumps more than 1 foot in diameter are split and 

 loosened by a charge of stumping powder of from five to twenty 

 sticks, according to size. A charge of twenty 1%-inch by 8-inch 

 sticks will generally split a 5-foot stump into five pieces and loosen 

 it so that an engine can pull the pieces from the ground. 



The first method of burning out fir stumps described below has 

 been used by almost all farmers and others who have done any 

 clearing in a small way. This method consists of boring two inter- 

 secting holes in the stump and starting a fife at the point of inter- 

 section by putting coals of fire or a piece of iron heated to a white 

 heat into the upper auger hole. A window weight with a wire fast- 

 ened in the eye makes a good iron for this purpose, as it can be 

 taken out and used again and again. 



After the upper portion of the stump has been burned away, the 

 fire may be kept up by throwing in the bark and litter that are 

 always to be found near by. By this means the main part of the 

 stump is burned away, leaving the larger stringers with their smaller 

 roots. These may be pulled out by a team or with a stump puller, 

 or they may be entirely burned by digging away the earth and roll- 

 ing a small log alongside of the root. This leaves but few small 

 roots to be grubbed out by hand. 



By this method the soil is but little disturbed, the subsoil is not 

 scattered over the surface, and the ashes are left where most needed. 



