SIXTHENTJ! ANNUAL MliETlNG. 131 



absolutely no good, it was sour and cold, and that nothing 

 would grow in it for six years, hut Wading J'^iver was decided 

 upon. As far hack as the oldest inhahitants could reniemher 

 tliat territory had hcen covered with "scrub oak waste," low 

 growing bushes with at least 150 big stumps to the acre, 

 charred second and third growth oak and chestnut, the result 

 of forest lires. On the 23rd of August we were ready for 

 work. We had any quantity of stump pullers guaranteed to 

 us. but we had an idea that the quickest thing on earth was 

 dynamite and it was selected ; on some acres we found there 

 were 300 stumps to be gotten rid of and on the last acre by 

 absolute count we took out 750. We decided to spend the 

 railroad's money with the people of the island, as there were 

 numerous young men doing nothing. The iirst day I en- 

 gaged twelve men to w^ork. Only one man arrived. I de- 

 cided that method wouldn't work, so I engaged men from 

 sunny Italy and we pitched our "tent" in the wilderness and got 

 to work on the stumps. For houses we- decided upon con- 

 demned freight cars; they cost but $10, while the hauling and 

 placing cost about $15; for $25 we had secured one of these 

 to serve later as a permanent chicken house. A second car 

 was found necessary wdien the Italians arrived, which we 

 planned ultimately to use as a hay loft, and that was placed 

 on the location selected for the barn. 



The dynamite we used is put u^) in half-pound sticks, and 

 wrapped in yellow paraffined paper. One end is opened and a 

 hold made in the stick with a wooden skewer. For battery 

 \vork we used a copper cap containing a small quantity of 

 fulminate of mercury and which requires a spark to explode it; 

 to the cap is attached two electric wires and sealed. This is 

 placed in the hole made in the dynamite and tied by drawing 

 string around the paper raised to admit the cap. We drove a 

 hole under the stump with a crowbar ; these holes we made as 

 horizontal as possible and directly under and against the stump 

 that all tlie explosive force might l)e expended on the wood. 

 All stumps we had blown out were burned the saiue day and 

 the ashes scattered for fertilizer. Sometimes when we had an 

 unusuallv large stump we would have to put in three charges. 

 As fast as the stumps were blown out and burned and ashes 



