26 CLEARING 
up some half an inch at a time, notch by notch, and in 
the hands of a single handy man was capable of lifting a 
dead weight of 12 tons. This instrument was employed 
in the following manner: The stump was first split open, 
not blown completely out of the ground, by a small 
charge of stumping-powder. Each of the pieces into 
which it split was then attacked in turn and levered out 
of the ground with the jack, and finally drawn away by 
a single horse. In this way a very considerable economy 
was effected in the use of explosives. The instrument 
would be of peculiar and valuable service for clearing 
amongst fruit-trees or close to buildings, where heavy 
charges of powder or dynamite could not be used with- 
out risk of doing serious damage to trees or buildings. 
Stume Buryine.—For burning the stumps as they 
stand two or three different methods are recommended. 
In the charpitting method a ring of kindling is piled 
round the base of the stump, on the surface of the ground, 
and the kindling covered with sod to the depth of 
6 inches, except at one point, preferably a point on the 
windward side. It is at this point that the fire is started ; 
but when the kindling gets well alight and is burning 
strongly, this opening is also closed up. The fire is then 
left until the whole of the stump is charred through and 
through. This method is, however, only suited for soils 
in which there is a fairly large percentage of clay. In 
sandy soils it is not so efficacious, for as the stump’s fangs 
char away, the loose earth tends to fall in, and so put 
the fire out. To overcome this difficulty, a trench must 
be dug several inches deep, and the bark removed from 
the stump and from its fangs as deep as the trench goes. 
