Draining Frog Ponds or Wet Spots 



. Swamps and ponds, except where they are close to rivers, lakes 

 or the ocean, are caused by spring or surface water collecting on low 

 ground without a lower outlet and which is underlaid by clay or 

 other subsoil that the water cannot sink through. When it is not 

 practicable to drain these swamps by ditching they can often be per- 

 manently dried up by shattering the impervious subsoil in the lowest 

 places with dynamite. 



Former Pond Yields $75 per Acre Crop 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

 BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, 



Washington, D. C. 

 OFFICE OF FARMERS' CO-OPERATIVE DEMONSTRATION WORK. 



MORRILLTOX, ARK., Jan. 18, 1912. 

 E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS POWDER Co. 



WILMINGTON, DEL. 

 Gentlemen : 



As per your request, I here give you my experience with dynamite as a 

 water sinker in my field in Georgia. 



I had a lime sink in my field and the water 

 would collect in that basin and would cover about 

 one acre and a half of ground, so some years when 

 we had excessive rainfall I could not plant it to 

 anything. 



My brother came to see me on a visit and he 

 said : "Why don't you put down a hole 25 or 35 

 feet and shoot it with dynamite and sink the 

 water?" So I put down a hole 23 ft. and shot it, 

 and it sunk the water. 



I weighed the corn that I gathered from the 

 \ l /2 acres the first year and I got a few pounds 

 more than 100 bushels of just as good corn as I 

 have made in my life. This made more than 

 $75.00, whereas I had been getting nothing from 

 this land, besides it was very disagreeable to have 

 to work around this wet spot each year. 



That was the only year I gathered the corn 

 separately, although it seemed to be better every 

 year I cultivated it until I sold the farm, and I do 

 know that the land worked better every year. 

 This experience of mine, and the results which I 

 secured is what makes me recommend subsoiling 

 with dynamite so strongly. Yours very truly, 



JOHN W. PARLIN, Special Agent. 



FIG 34 



BLASTING 



THE 



POND 



SHOWN ON 



OPPOSITE 



PAGE 



41 



