DYNAMITING STUMPS AND TREE HOLES 257 



completely. The roots are left in such shape that a few blows with an axe 

 will free every one of them, so that a plow can be run over the old location 

 of the stump in almost every case without any difficulty whatever. 



BREAKING UP THE SUBSOIL 



But one point which is considered as most important of all in regard 

 to the use of dynamite in stump blasting, is that the same charge which 

 blows out the stump breaks up the subsoil. It has been found by actual ex- 

 perience that wherever stumps have been blown out the soil produces extra 

 vigorous crops. On a farm in California where oats were planted on a field 

 that had been cleared of stumps, the oats grew a foot higher over the spots 

 from which stumps had been blown. Mr. Jas. Craig, proprietor of the Kose 

 Cliff Fruit Farm, Waynesboro, Va., states that in his experience the value 

 of the subsoiling effect of dynamite in stump blasting equals at least 30 

 per cent of the cost of the dynamite. 



These figures seem really conservative in view of results he has obtained 

 from tree planting with dynamite, by means of which apple trees planted 

 six years ago with dynamite are twice as tall as those planted with a spade 

 in the same lot and are so much better branched that they have about three 

 times the bearing capacity and the fruit produced is larger and of better 

 color. Inasmuch as the same soil condition is produced by blasting out a 

 stump it would seem that his estimate of the value of subsoiling incidental 

 to the stump blasting is conservative. 



DYNAMITING HOLES FOR TREES 



Eesults which prove conclusively that dynamite has advantages in fruit 

 culture have been secured, but just how great these advantages are cannot 

 be stated until further experiments have demonstrated the most economical 

 methods of using dynamite in the orchard. 



It is obvious that several years are required after the planting of a fruit 

 tree in a dynamited hole, to ascertain just how its life or growth differs from 

 one planted in a spaded hole, and further experimentation will be necessary 

 to show whether it is necessary or advisable to use more or less dynamite per 

 hole to get maximum results, cost considered. 



The following results already determined should be of interest to pro- 

 gressive horticulturists everywhere: 



First. Planting trees with dynamite practically eliminates the loss of 

 young trees during the first year. 



Second. Trees can be planted much more rapidly by the dynamite meth- 

 od than by the old method. 



Third. Trees planted with dynamite come into bearing from one to two 

 years sooner than those planted by the soil method. 



