THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



77 



your chain under it. Hitch your cattle to the 

 end of the rope, and they will draw any stump 

 that ever grew in the ground. Then take off 

 the dirt from the stump with a spade, and it will 

 fall back exactly as it came up, leaving no hole 

 to fill. There will also be no roots left in the 

 ground for future botheration, and the soil which 

 was about the stumps having never been tilled, 

 will be distinguished as good spots instead of 

 bad ones. 



"Let your shaft be the stifTest and toughest 

 stick of second growth white oak that you can 

 get ; let the gudgeon fit the hole in the post as 

 exactly as possible, consistently with its turning 

 freely, and at the foot of the posts, instead of 

 ' firmly mortising them into the sills,' let the 

 tenon be round, about 4 inches in diameter, and 

 not pinned ; the weight will keep it in its place. 

 This will allow the post to turn a little on the 

 sill, and thus keep it from splitting, and the 

 gudgeon from breaking. You must also have 

 two good iron bands around the top of each 

 post, one above and one below the gudgeon, and 

 the same on the end of each gudgeon outside 

 the posts. In drawing a stump, your machine 

 must be directly over it, so that the chains will 

 draw plumb. If there is any elevation or un- 

 evenness in the ground, have the same end of 

 both sills raised or lowered alike, and never one sill 

 higher than the other. You must have a notch 

 in the outside of the posts, about 7 feet from 

 the ground, and if a little cramping is unavoid- 

 able, you put a pole or rail with one end stuck 

 in the ground, and the other in this notch. You 

 must not use frisky cattle at moving the ma- 

 chine, for if one team should stop and the other 

 keep on, some mischief would follow. 



"Now have an auger made, such as pump 

 borers use first, only about four feet long, having 

 a screw like a cork screw at the point. Bore a 

 hole down exactly in the heart of each stump, 

 (for however rotten at the top, they will gener- 

 ally be sound at the junction or knotting to- 

 gether of the roots,) and put down about three 

 inches of coarse blasting pov/der. This will 

 blow the stump to atoms ; and you may then 

 convert them by means of your beetle, wedges, 

 and axe, into first rate wood for home consump- 

 tion. Many farmers will not understand blast- 

 ing, but it is, after a little practice, as safe and 

 simple an operation as any other on the farm. 

 You will want a crowbar, a priming wire of 

 the same length as the auger, a four pound 

 hammer with a. handle five inches long, and 

 some match paper made into strips three inches 

 long, and half an inch wide. After your hole 

 is bored, (and be careful not to have it go clear 

 through by a foot or so,) put down your powder. 

 Then put in your wire, which should be made 

 tapering, the small end about one fourth of an 

 inch in diameter, on one side of the hole. Now 

 fill the hole with pounded brick and damp clay, 



alternately, pounding it down with the small 

 end of the crowbar, and starting the wire every 

 now and then, till it is full. Now draw the 

 wire by putting the small end of the crowbar 

 through the loop in the wire, and striking it up 

 with the hammer, taking great care not to let 

 the least particle of dust fall into the hole. Then 

 fill the hole slowly with powder, apply your 

 match paper, (common wrapping paper steeped 

 in a solution of saltpetre,) touch fire to the end 

 of the match, and take to your heels; and, de- 

 pend upon it, the stump's powers of locomotion 

 will be vastly assisted by this operation. The 

 machine for drawing them will be cumbrous 

 and heavy, but it will be strong, simple and ef- 

 fective. The whole cost of this apparatus will 

 be between fifty and one hundred dollars ; but, 

 it is well worth while for every large farmer, or 

 three or four small farmers in company, to pos- 

 sess one, wherever stumps occupy the ground. 

 It is enough to say that the machine made and 

 tended by the inventor, has been in constant re- 

 quisition since that time (fifteen years,) and never 

 went at a stump which it did not take up." 



For the Southern Planter. 



Llangollen^ Ky. } Feb. 28, 1844. 

 C. T. Botts, Esq. 



Dear Sir, — Permit me to return you my sin- 

 cere thanks for sending to me two numbers (the 

 January and February) of your agricultural pe- 

 riodical, " The Southern Planter." The people 

 are more benefited, their real interests more ad- 

 vanced, their rational and moral powers more 

 healthfully secured hy one such paper, than by 

 all the political and polemical slangwhanging 

 journals that ever were or ever will be expec- 

 torated on them. Agriculture is gradually ceas- 

 ing to be a mere empirical practice. It is rightly 

 becoming an enlightened art, founded on science, 

 and the time will surely come when the treat- 

 ment of land, crops, stock, &c. will be founded 

 on well ascertained and established principles 

 deduced from facts. In feeding stock we err 

 widely and commit great waste of food. If we 

 observe the horse, cow and sheep, for instance, 

 when permitted, unrestrained, to gather their 

 own food in spring and summer, we may learn 

 truths, which we should apply to them when 

 dependent on us for their supplies. We cannot 

 doubt that their instincts direct them aright as 

 to quantity and quality, for we see that they 

 grow and thrive where there is an abundance 

 of those plants which they select. The green 

 leaves and seeds, both immature and ripe, con- 

 stitute their food. In these, the larger portion 

 is water ; yet they drink and also seek salt-licks. 

 The bodies of the mammalia, including man, 

 contain seventy-five per cent, of water; yet ive 

 do not attempt to assimilate their food to green 



