52 BULLETIN 1003, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



versity of Idaho (8), have done much actual work on land clearing 

 in this section, and have found the cost of clearing for farm purposes 

 to vary from $50 for the lightest clearing ground to $150 an acre for 

 heavily wooded hardwood land. 



In the sections from which samples were collected 20 yellow-pine 

 stumps to the acre is a high average on land where the stand is 

 mostly or entirely yellow pine ; under more commonly occurring con- 

 ditions in which there is more of a mixed stand, such as in the Pot- 

 latch-Deary district, 10 to 12 yellow-pine stumps to the acre is more 

 nearly correct. 



If, as indicated by these investigations, 10 per cent of the yellow- 

 pine stumps are of the rich, resinous type, yielding 20 gallons of 

 turpentine and other products in proportion a cord, or 15.4 gallons a 

 ton, the 12 stumps an acre would yield 1 cord, and 20 stumps about 

 2 cords of wood an acre. 



If the wood could be disposed of for $10 a cord, the return for the 

 extra labor, time, and expense required to split and sort out the 

 resinous wood and haul it to a shipping point would be from $10 to 

 $20. Experiments in clearing 1 acre carrying 12 yellow-pine stumps, 

 varying from 2 to 5 feet in diameter (page 18), have shown that 

 this return will a little more than pay for the powder needed to 

 blast out all the yellow-pine stumps. In other words, provided a 

 market for the wood at $10 a cord is available, the net cost of land 

 may be reduced from 64 to 40 per cent, less the cost of sorting and 

 hauling to a shipping point. 



The chief question is whether a farmer can afford to shoot all the 

 yellow pine clear of the ground, or crack with explosives and pull 

 the pieces with a puller, then sort the wood and haul it to the rail- 

 road, or whether he can get his land cleared more cheaply by using 

 some of the methods of burning described in Idaho Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station Bulletin 91, or United States Department of Agri- 

 culture Farmers' Bulletin 974. If the returns from the fat stumps 

 on a tract are sufficient to justify the more expensive methods of 

 clearing, and it is some advantage to have all the roots out of the 

 ground, blasting is the method which will be most used. 



About 100 pounds of explosive would be required to shoot clear of 

 the ground all the yellow-pine stumps on an acre, while 25 pounds 

 would crack them enough so that they could be burned. In the first 

 case, the cost of explosive (1914-15) would be about $15 and in the 

 second case $4. The explosive could be placed with a little less work 

 if the stumps were to be burned. Possibly it would require about the 

 same amount of labor to burn the stumps in the ground as it would 

 to sort over the pieces, burn those unfit for distillation purposes, and 

 haul the rest to the railroad. On the assumption that it would, it 



