November, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



435 



Burning Stumps and Rubbish at the End of the Clearing 



calling tor the expenditure of immense quantities of labor, 

 and much expense in tools and animals used in completing 

 the work of clearing. It is just here that dynamite comes 

 in, performing a service of great value to those who use it, 

 doing the work it has to do with excellence and dispatch, 

 and permitting the instant cultivation of the ground or its 

 utilization in other ways without loss of time or energy. 



In undertaking to clear a piece of ground of tree stumps 

 it is obvious, if the land is to be speedily utilized, that the 

 work must be done as quickly and as economically as pos- 

 sible. And the question of economy is not alone that of the 

 money cost of the tools and materials used, but includes also 

 the economy of time — the 

 most costly thing in the 

 w o r 1 d — an ignoring of 

 which often means many 

 heavy losses and much 

 fruitless labor. 



It will, for example, take 

 two men with a team of 

 horses from a half to two 

 days to remove a single tree 

 stump, according to its size 

 and the depth to which it 

 has grown. Even with ex- 

 pert workers the task is la- 

 borious and expensive, and 

 when multiplied by a hun- 

 dred and several hundreds 

 — as will be the case in a 

 forest-grown country — the 

 very cheapest land may be- 

 come unpleasantly costly. 



The greatest saving ef- 

 fected by dynamite is in 

 ' time and labor. It is a sav- 

 ing so large that the cost of 

 the raw materials and the 

 simple implements required 

 bear hardly any proportion 

 to the cost of the work by 



old-fashioned methods. As 

 a matter of fact the tools 

 and implements needed are 

 the simplest : a long auger, 

 a firing battery, starters, 

 and a coil of fine copper 

 wire. Nothing more, save 

 the dynamite itself, is 

 needed for the work. Yet 

 there is one other thing re- 

 quired, and that is care. Dy- 

 namite, according to the 

 popular mind, is an exceed- 

 ingly dangerous compound. 

 Carelessly used it is, of 

 course, dangerous in the 

 most positive sense. But the 

 most dangerous article is 

 quite safe if handled as it 

 should be, and dynamite 

 only needs to be handled in 

 this way to be without any 

 ordinary possibility of 

 harm. One must avoid 

 subjecting it to shocks, and 

 it must be kept at an even 

 temperature, neither too 

 cold nor too hot. 



Imagine, then, if you 

 please, a modest unpretentious country house standing in a 

 somewhat open ground, whose distinguishing feature is the 

 numerous tree stumps that rise above the soil in every direc- 

 tion. The outlook, even on pleasant days, is gloomy enough 

 and most discouraging to anyone who supposes that each 

 individual stump must be cut out with the spade and dragged 

 away with a team of horses. As a matter of fact this method 

 proved not only so expensive but so slow that a more effec- 

 tive means was sought and dynamite was pressed into service. 



The very simple tools have already been named. The 

 chief one was the long auger, which was used for boring 

 holes in the base of the stump for the reception of the dyna- 



A Final Explosion Leit Everything Ready for the Burning of the Debr 



