General Advice on Tree Planting 

 Setting Trees with Dynamite to Conserve Moisture 



ARTHUR E. COLE, Prop., High Point Farm and Nursery, Chamblee, Ga. 



Over a large portion of our country is a hardpan of shale or 

 tight clay near the surface. It is a menace to the productiveness 

 of trees and all vegetables which root deeply. The scientific principle 

 involved is the inability of such a subsoil to absorb, retain and give 

 back to growing crops the essential moisture. On such land the 

 water soaking through a thin topsoil fails to penetrate and finds a 

 second drainage on this subsurface, draining off in "Wet Weather 

 Springs" or standing in surface suspense as "Bogs." Land in this 

 physical condition fails of an agricultural dividend. Put in proper 

 physical condition this same land becomes highly profitable. The 

 way to proceed is by using dynamite. Probably no process of plow- 

 ing known to agriculture can produce the good results in breaking 

 up a tight subsoil that does this blasting with Du Pont Dynamite. 



Planters of clover and alfalfa realize this. Orchardists have 

 come to accept it as final. Strawberries and all crops requiring a 

 great amount of moisture respond to its use in a way almost unbe- 

 lievable. Short lived crops like tomatoes and cucumbers will con- 

 tinue to bear through the long season where the hills are shot with 

 cartridges of dynamite. Figs produce a crop the first year after 

 being set where dynamited. The writer can see this from his back 

 door as he writes. This new-found process is the foundation of a 

 new era in agriculture and horticulture. 



At the present time many thousands of trees are being set in 

 young orchards all over the United States. Such a boom in apple 

 and pecan planting was never before known. It is a logical answer 

 to an unsupplied demand. The question is, will these orchards 

 endure will they pay ? 



In orchard setting, the use of dynamite is advised in practically all 

 soils. The pecan naturally flourishes on the deep, moist, alluvial 

 soil of river and creek bottoms. Nature has put it where it will not 

 suffer from drought in the long, hot, dry summer and autumn through 

 which it must hold and mature its late fruit. We can move it to our 

 grove or back yard and succeed with it by dynamiting the ground. 



Watermelons and peaches should be dynamited because they re- 

 quire great moisture, being fruits composed largely of water, but of 

 all fruits demanding an unfailing and continuous supply of moisture 

 the apple and pecan lead. Therefore, it is imperative that we dyna- 

 mite as an artificial means of conserving the moisture. Unlike all 

 other fruit, the apple grows on the end of a twig of new wood, a 

 twig which bears no more. The apple being a biennial, sets its 

 fruit bud for next year during July and August of this year. So 

 we see this hard condition imposed : a winter apple must make its new 

 growth of wood, hold its foliage, mature its present crop of fruit, 

 and, if it is to produce again next year, the little tender twig bearing 

 an apple must mature a new fruit spur or twig alongside of it to 

 bring forth a healthy fruit bud next year. And all this during a 

 long, hot summer or autumn. The demand for moisture is enor- 

 mous. 



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