APPLES 109 
for their first cost in reducing the ex- 
pense of clearing, the product of the flock 
thus becoming a clear profit. 
Removing Stumps 
The following methods are used: Blast- 
ing, stump puller, stump puller in com- 
bination with blasting, burning. 
Blasting 
A word should be said at the outset rela- 
tive to the supposed injury to the soil by 
powder. No chemical injury is done to 
soil by the use of powder. It must be re- 
membered, however, that in blasting out 
a quantity of large stumps in a soil closely 
underlaid with clay, sand, gravel or hard 
pan, much of the poor subsoil is likely to 
be thrown out upon the surface and in 
this way have injurious effect. 
Powder Used 
Space cannot be here given to methods 
of handling the powder. 
That most commonly employed is a 20 
per cent nitro-glycerine powder for warm 
weather and a chlorate powder for cold 
weather as the latter does not freeze. 
Placing the Powder 
Tools employed are a bar six to seven 
feet long made by welding a rounded 
steel dub at one end and a chisel at the 
other end of a one and one-half inch gas 
pipe, the round end being used for thrust- 
ing aside gravel in the auger hole and the 
chisel end for cutting roots, a three-inch 
auger with a long shank, a long-handled 
spoon or shovel, and an ax. 
By means of these tools the operator 
makes a hole large enough for his charge 
Fig. 3. Beginning the Boring of Holes Under 
Stump for Blasting. 
Fig. 4. Finishing Boring of Holes Under 
Stump for Blasting. 
at the point which, in his judgment, is 
the center of resistance of the stump, one 
to three feet below the level of the ground. 
The amount of powder used will be deter- 
mined by experience although there is no 
economy in tearing a stump all to pieces. 
Cost of Blasting Stumps 
By this method the government ex- 
perts removed green. fir stumps from 
sandy, gravelly loam, the stumps ranging 
Two Stumps Whose Roots Are So 
Grown Together That a Single Charge Can- 
not Be Placed to Blast Them Economically. 
Fig. 5. 
Fig. 6. The Result of a Battery Shot Upon 
the Stumps Shown in Fig. 5 
