62 maine agricultural experiment station. i915. 



Preparing Land With Dynamite. 



A great deal has been said about and considerable work has 

 been done with dynamite as a means of loosening soil for crops. 

 A trial was begun at Highmoor Farm in 191 2. An acre and a 

 half of land, the soil of which is fairly uniform that was in 

 pasture and apparently had not been in crop for twenty-five 

 or more years, was made free from stone, divided into three 

 uniform plots of a half acre each, and treated as follows in 

 September, 1912: One-half acre (A) was, plowed and then 

 sub-soil plowed. Another half acre, the middle one (B), was 

 prepared by boring holes 30 to 36 inches deep a rod apart and 

 discharging one-half pound stick of 20 per cent dynamite in 

 each hole. The third plot (C) was plowed in the usual way. 

 The plan is to leave the whole field to be treated alike each year 

 to see if any difference could be noted in the resulting crops in 

 the three methods of preparation. 



The soil is the usual rather moderately heavy loam of High- 

 moor Farm which is underlain with a very difficultly penetrable 

 sub-soil. In the spring of 1913 the whole field was plowed and 

 the proper seed bed made for the planting of potatoes. The 

 rate of seeding, use of fertilizers, time of planting, frequency 

 of cultivation, and spraying to prevent blight, were all alike on 

 all three of the plots. Careful records were made during 

 growth and at the time of harvest. There were no appreciable 

 differences in the crop on the three different plots. In 1914 the 

 field was in corn. While there was not a uniform stand there 

 were no differences that could be attributed to the method of 

 preparation. 



The field will be sown with oats and seeded to grass in 1915, 

 but it is not likely that any differences whatever will appear. 

 Notes will be made during the growing season and the yields 

 will be measured at harvest. 



Also in 191 3 it was necessary to reset about 150 trees in the 

 Baldwin orchard. Part of these trees were set in the usual way, 

 by digging holes in the spring with a spade, thoroughly mix- 

 ing the soil and setting out as commonly practiced by orchard- 

 ists. Scattered over the orchard at varying points that seemed 

 to be uniform and comparable with the others, the soil was 

 loosened by the explosion of sticks of dynamite in the fall of 

 1912. The trees here were also set in the spring of 1913. There 



