Duration of Subsoiling With Red Cross Dynamite 



The -publicity giyep to these astonishing results which point to a 

 revolution in 'farming 'methods, has naturally created much inquiry in 

 the minds of the fanners as to the cost of subsoiling and the length 

 of time before subsoiled land will have to be again subsoiled in order 

 to keep it open. 



The cost averages about $15.00 an acre, including dynamite, blasting 

 caps, fuse and the labor of making the holes and doing the blasting. In 

 most cases the cost is recovered within the year, out of the increased 

 yield, but in other cases where the increased yield would not be 

 worth more than $15.00 an acre, it is important to know how long this 

 increased production is going to keep up so as to justify the expense. 



Let us first consider the matter from a theoretical point of view. 



One of the first uses of dynamite for subsoiling was in tree plant- 

 ing. Twenty-one years ago W. R. Gunnis planted an orchard with 

 dynamite at La Mesa, Cal. This orchard matured more rapidly than 

 orchards set out with a spade, resisting drouth and other unfavorable 

 conditions with marked success, and although the tract has been sub- 

 divided and used as a residence property, some of the trees are still 

 thriving and for years this orchard was recognized as the most pro- 

 ductive and best appearing in the neighborhood. 



W. W. Stevens, Orchardist, Mayfield, Ga., planted trees with dyna- 

 mite eighteen or twenty years ago. He says : 



"They are the finest trees I have ever seen grow for their age. In the 

 planting of peach trees 1 gained two years in six; in other words, I got as 

 much fruit from a tree planted with dynamite at four years old as we usually 

 get at six years old. I not only plant them with it, but where a tree is failing 

 and seems to be on the decline, I start it off to growing again by firing charges 

 from three to ten feet apart. Nothing seems to tickle the earth so much as 

 planting watermelons after explosion of dynamite from three to four feet 

 under ground." 



Mr. James Craig, President of the Rose Cliff Farm, Waynesboro, 

 Va., began planting trees with dynamite nine years ago. He writes 

 under date November 15, 1911 



"I should think from the thoroughness of the work done by dynamite that 

 it will last fifteen or twenty years without question." 



Mr. Craig plants all his trees with dynamite. 



Mr. Arthur E. Cole, Proprietor of High Point Farm, a small-fruit 

 nursery at Chamblee, Ga., writes as follows under date of November 

 17, 1911 



"About eight years ago the New Roswell Road was graded. In the cut 

 through the steep hill just south of Nancy Creek, between the eight and nine- 

 mile post (from Atlanta), much blasting was done. A vigorous growth of 

 clover and young sycamore trees immediately sprang up on the roadside where 

 this blasting was done. The clover seed found their own way from the hay 

 where the mules were fed, into the porous soil where the dynamite was used. 

 A good stand has appeared each succeeding year without any cultivation. Notic- 

 ing this I began to observe rock quarries and other places where explosives had 

 been used, and found similar conditions prevailing. Wherever the ground has 

 been broken with dynamite a perfect system of subsoiling results. Cut a 

 cake of butter with a sharp knife; the cut surface is left hard and smooth. 

 Just so in subsoiling with a plow. It rains, the water soaks through topsoil 



102 



