Planting with Dynamite 
(Reprinted by the kind permission of 
Landscape Architecture.) 
The use of explosives to loosen the ground in planting is no longer 
absolutely a novelty, but the following detailed instances of the em- 
ployment of dynamite in various special cases, from the experience 
of Mr. Norman Supplee, landscape engineer of Pennsylvania, are 
worthy of study, particularly now that the cost of labor makes it 
important to look into anything that promises to reduce the number 
of men necessary on a job. 
USING Dyna- The purchaser of an old place in the suburbs of Philadelphia 
I MITE IN Re- wanted to move about 200 shrubs, which had grown at various places 
PLANTING all over the lawn, to form a line to screen the public view from the 
Shrubs road running along the front of the property. It had been estimated 
that the cost to do this transplanting would be about two hundred 
dollars because the bushes.had grown to a height of twelve to fourteen 
feet and had large, spreading root systems. 
It was decided to try blasting them out with dynamite. The 
theory was that this would shake a good deal of the dirt loose from 
the roots and get them out in better shape to transplant than if they 
were dug out and many of the roots cut off in doing it. 
Inch and a half bore holes were put down eighteen inches deep 
and a foot and a half away from the plant at four points around each 
shrub. Only an eighth of a pound of dynamite was the charge tamped 
well into each hole. 
The idea worked out better than had been hoped. The roots 
were not badly torn or broken. After the blasts the plants were easily 
dug out. It cost an average of thirty cents to take up each shrub. 
It was thought it would be necessary to dig a deep, wide trench 
to replant without cutting or cramping the roots. To avoid this 
labor, the planting was done in blasted holes; using the same method, 
in fact, which is often used in planting trees, and which is now pretty 
well known all over the country. About one-sixth of a pound of dyna- 
mite was used on each planting. The cost was about ten cents a plant. 
The total cost of taking up and replanting, including labor, was 
approximately fifty-five cents a plant, or one hundred and ten dollars 
for the entire job, thus saving ninety dollars over the original estimate 
which was to employ all hand labor. 
Not a plant was injured by the blasting, so that it could not be 
transplanted to the new location. 
Rejtjvenat- a Philadelphia man had purchased a country estate that had been 
ING Trees unoccupied for five or six years. There were about one hundred and 
and Lawn twenty-five beautiful trees on the place. The finest were three large 
with Dyna- Babylonian willows, one large scarlet oak, a native cherry having a 
trunk about four and one-half feet in diameter, a large American elm 
20 
mite 
