28 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I916. 



and to rape in 191 5. Careful records were made during 

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

 differences in the crop on the different plots. 



This experiment seems to clearly indicate that under the 

 soil conditions at Highmoor Farm there is no advantage what- 

 ever in the use of dynamite for loosening soil for field crops. 



EXPERIMENT IN SETTING APPLE TREES. 



Also in 1913 it was necessary to reset part of the Baldwin 

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

 digging holes in the spring with a spade, thoroughly mixing 

 the soil and setting out as commonly practiced by orchardists, 

 and part by loosening the soil by the explosion of sticks of 

 dynamite in the fall of 1912 and setting the trees in the spring 

 of 1913. 



The soil on Highmoor Farm is a rather moderately heavy, 

 reddish loam underlain with a very difficultly penetrable sub- 

 soil. In the orchard in question the surface soil contains 

 rather more sand, and is consequently somewhat lighter than on 

 most of the farm. The sub-soil runs from 7 to 15 inches under 

 the top soil. It is sandy but is "greasy" and will hold water, 

 as the puddles show. Regardless of the presence of sand the 

 sub-soil is very compact and impenetrable. 



The topography is such in this orchard, for the most part a 

 .gentle slope to the west, that good, natural surface drainage 

 is secured. The only pockets where water wag( likely to 

 stand or where the surface drainage was poor have been 

 underlain with tile. 



In blowing holes for setting the trees the charge of dyna- 

 mite was inserted at the depth of from 30 to 36 inches. The 

 material encountered toward the bottom of the holes consisted 

 of a very resistant hardpan which was very hard to break, 

 therefore one stick of extra 20 per cent dynamite was used in 

 each hole, instead of one-half stick as was originally planned. 

 The expert reported as follows regarding a test hole put down 

 to a depth of 36 inches and loaded with one cartridge: "This 

 blew but a small amount of dirt out of the hole. A man was 

 put to work digging out loose material, and we found that 

 there was very satisfactory loosening to a depth of 36 inches 

 with lines of breakage extending in all directions from the 



