434 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1907 



Drilling Auger Holes for the Sticks of Dynamite 



Firing the Dynamite from the Electric Battery 



Dynamite on the Farm 



By George Nathan 



lil'^ utilization of dangerous elements and 

 forces for modern utilities is one of the most 

 remarkable and significant of the advances 

 of science. To utilize a simple force in a 

 beneficial way has long been characteristic 

 of human progress; it is by this method 

 that civilization has advanced, new ideas 

 have come into being, new inventions been perfected, and 

 new powers obtained by man over the forces of nature. Had 

 industrial progress been the theme of early philosophers, and 

 had they been prone to look into the future, they would un- 

 questionably have foreseen a time when, ordinary forces 

 once overcome, the inventive genius of mankind would have 

 been applieci to the mastery of extraordinary forces, and even 

 gone so far as to predict that the most dangerous forces 

 would have been applieci to many useful purposes. 



Academic discussions as 

 to what might be or might 

 have been under non-exist- 

 ing conditions are not al- 

 ways of utility; but even 

 the most casual observer 

 must have long been aware 

 that the utilization of dan- 

 gerous forces has become 

 characteristic of the present 

 period. Every day new 

 uses are not only being 

 found for ordinary forces 

 and powers, but elements 

 that are admittedly danger- 

 ous even to the skilled and 

 careful worker and those 

 thoroughly familiar with 

 them, are put to new uses 

 that have some general or 

 special utility, and which Ramming the Sticks of 



transform a dreaded power into a force of pronounced 

 utility. 



There are probably few things that, by their nature and 

 according to popular judgment, seem more unlikely to be 

 of value to the farmer than dynamite; yet as a matter of fact 

 it is one of those unlikely things that, when properly used, 

 may be of the greatest assistance and value. As an agent 

 for the removal of stumps and stones from land that is being 

 cleared of trees and rocks it is to-day the most serviceable 

 and desirable agent available for this work. 



Tree destruction is one of the unavoidable misfortunes of 

 country development. Crops can not be grown in forests, 

 nor can houses well be built in such an environment. Tree 

 chopping is, therefore, one of the most destructive callings 

 practised in America. That the whole land has suffered 

 from this — shall I so call it? — industry, is now an admitted 



economic fact; but it is like- 

 wise true that much of it 

 was unavoidable in the past 

 and much of it is unavoid- 

 able now — unavoidable be- 

 cause tree culture and tree 

 utility have only recently 

 come to be understood 

 among us, and because 

 clearings and open spaces 

 are essential to the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil and the erec- 

 tion of dwellings. 



The destruction of trees 

 by chopping, however, is 

 but part of the task. The 

 ground must be cleared, 

 and cleared completely. 

 This later stage of the work 

 has long been the most 

 Dynamite Into Position arduous and irksome, 



