140 



of the ground, and mostly under water, which I removed 

 very easily with three cartridges tied "to a stick and pushed 

 down beside it in a hole made with a bar; it was kicked 

 out high and dry, more than a rod from its hole, although 

 it weighed all of three tons. Another blast of six cartridges, 

 or three pounds, threw out three tons or more of solid 

 rock from one corner of a very large boulder, and scattered 

 it in pieces of all sizes, for a distanee of a hundred feet or 

 more, and throwing one piece of a ton in weight sixty feet 

 from its hole. 



Dynamite is like many other things, " A good servant, 

 but a poor master ;" it is altogether too quick tempered to 

 be allowed to have its own way, and if you have to keep it 

 on hand, store it away from house or barn, for, though it 

 may be perfectly safe, if it should explode from any cause, 

 you could probably get no insurance, even if you were left 

 to try for it, and do not leave the caps where the children 

 can find them to play with, as they explode with the noise 

 of a rifle, and often do severe damage. 



One of my neighbor's little children got a cap one even- 

 ing and a pair of scissors, and went under the table to in- 

 vestigate its composition, by trying to dig out the fulmin- 

 ate ; the result was a loud explosion, an extinguished lamp, 

 a badly frightened family, and a burnt haud. The man of 

 the house now keeps his explosives in an overturned barrel 

 beside the pasture wall, and doesn't allow his children to 

 play in that vicinity. 



If there is a good market for stone removed, and the land 

 is more stony than stumpy, the sales will about pay for 

 cost of clearing the land, and the improvement of the 

 property will do very well for profit, and beside, there will 

 be the constant pleasure of owning and daily viewing a 

 smooth and productive field where once was a rough and 

 almost valueless bit of pasture or scrub land ; and again, 

 the annual returns from the reclaimed lot will be very ac- 

 ceptable. 



Let the members of our grand old Essex County Agri- 



