1877.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
19 
It was kept in the dark that the Smith,town clique, 
with the General at its head, had the horses engag¬ 
ed from abroad that were to win all the large pre¬ 
miums, running from one to five hundred dollars. 
Pretty much every town in the County was repre¬ 
sented on the track. The General and his mana¬ 
gers having made a sure thing of getting the best 
horses into the Smithtown ring, could bet as heavily 
as they liked against the green horses that came in 
from the country. Everything was done for the 
benefit of the gambling fraternity. The privilege 
•of pool selling was sold for the benefit of the So¬ 
ciety for the sum of $400, and a pool-wheel was run 
•during the four days of the fair, so that every one 
might have a chance to put up his money. Then 
under the guise of encouraging the production of 
■“ Native Wine,” and suppressing the evils of in¬ 
temperance, a grog-shop was opened on the 
grounds, where all kinds of intoxicating drinks 
were sold out of bottles labeled “ Concord Wine,” 
41 Catawba Wine,” etc. Everybody in Hookertown 
knows that there is not a vineyard in the County, 
and that there are not half grapes enough raised 
to supply the table. “You might search every cel¬ 
lar in Hookertown,” Seth Twiggs says, “and bar¬ 
ring a bottle or two of Elderberry or Currant wine 
kept jest for sickness, you could not find any thing 
they called wine.”—It answered the purpose of the 
gamblers just as well as if grape juice had been 
plenty in Hookertown. The “ Native Wines ” 
were well patronized, the people were made wise 
and rich, and were ready to bet on their own horses 
without dreaming of a ring in Smithtown. The 
great races were run at the fair in October, and the 
White Oaks and Hookertown had an eye opener. 
Kier Frink not only lost his money, hut his horse, 
for he was so sure of winning that he bet horse 
and all on the race. Jake Frink found out “ that 
that ’ere wheel didn’t turn but one way, and that 
was always towards Smithtown. Yer don’t ketch 
me agin.” George Washington Tucker and Benja¬ 
min Franklin Jones and their cronies at the livery 
stable used language that Parson Spooner would 
not approve of. Shadtown felt cheated, wouldn’t 
stand it any way, attacked the Smithtown ring on 
their way home, and got soundly thrashed. 
It seems to me, Mr. Editor, that our State and 
County Agricultural Societies need a good deal 
more attention from farmers than they get. Too 
often they are run by men of the General Lawson 
sort, who are not farmers, and who only want to 
use the fairs for their own benefit. The horse is of 
chief benefit to them as a means of gambling, 
which means cheating and robbery. The track 
grows more prominent every year, and cattle, sheep, 
swine, poultry, fruits, and vegetables, are crowded 
into the back-ground. In some of the societies 
the Annual Show is mainly a horse-race, with its 
attendant evils, betting, high excitement, drunken¬ 
ness, and quarreling. Men of good morals and 
quiet habits withdraw in disgust. It is no place for 
them and their families. These growing evils of 
our Agricultural Fairs should have attention at the 
annual meetings to be held this winter, and be 
remedied. 
Hookertown , C’t., I Yours to command, 
Nov. 10 th, 1876. j Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
Clearing Land by Blasting. 
Sometime ago we gave an account of the use of 
dynamite or giant powder, in removing stumps and 
rocks from recently cleared Wood-land, or old 
meadows, with some illustrations of the methods 
employed. The large number of enquiries for fur¬ 
ther information, we have received since then, 
made it advisable to experiment with this explo¬ 
sive in a practical manner, in order to thoroughly 
test its value. This we have recently done, in con¬ 
junction with the officers of the Atlantic Giant 
Powder Co., the manufacturers of the explosive. 
The ground selected was on the estate of J. Hull 
Browning, Esq., of Tenafly, N. J., who kindly gave 
the requisite facilities. The work was done by Mr. 
I. J. Werden, of Pittsfield, Mass., who of late has 
made a business of clearing land in this manner, 
and has operated on many stumps and boulders. 
The explosive used is dynamite, or giant powder. 
It is a mixture of nitro-glycerine with some absorb¬ 
ents, by which this dangerously explosive liquid is 
made into a perfectly safe solid substance, of a 
consistence and appearance not unlike light-brown 
sugar. It is not possible to explode dynamite by 
ordinary accident, nor even by the application of a 
lighted match. A quantity of it placed upon a 
stump and fired with a lighted match, burned away 
very much as a piece of camphor or resin would do, 
with little flame but much smoke, and boiled and 
bubbled until only a crust was left. There is not the 
least danger, therefore, of igniting the powder dan¬ 
gerously, until properly 
placed for the blast. In 
this respect it has a very 
great advantage over ordi¬ 
nary blasting powder, which 
may be exploded by a spark. 
The powder, as it is manu¬ 
factured, is made into car¬ 
tridges about eight inches in 
length, and of any required 
diameter. Those used in this 
operation were 8 inches in 
length, but these may be cut 
into pieces with a knife, as 
may be required for use. 
The cartridges are wrapped 
in strong parchment paper, 
covered with paraffine, and 
the true form is shown at figure 1. They are 
fired by a cap, (also in figure 1), which is insert¬ 
ed into the end of the cartridge. The fuse, which 
is of the common kind, is inserted into the open 
end of the cap, which is pinched close upon it with 
a small pair of pliers, so as to hold it firmly. The 
cartridge is then opened at one end, the cap with 
the fuse attached inserted, and the paper is tied 
tightly around the fuse with a piece of twine. The 
cartridge ready for firing is shown at figure 2. 
The first operation was upon a green white oak 
stump, 30 inches in diameter, with roots deeply 
bedded in the ground. To have cut and dug out 
this stump, with ax and spades, would have been a 
hard day’s work for two or more good men. The 
shape of the stump is shown at figure 3. A hole 
was punched beneath the stump, as shown in the 
figure, with an iron bar, (fig. 4), so as to reach the 
center of it. Two of the cartridges were placed 
beneath the stump, and were tamped with some 
earth; a pail of water was then poured into the 
hole, which had the effect of consolidating the 
earth around the charge. The fuse was then fired. 
The result was to split the stump into numerous 
fragments, and to throw it entirely out of the 
ground, leaving only a few shreds of roots loose in 
the soil. The result is shown in figure 5, on the 
next page ; the fragmentsY>f the stump in the en¬ 
graving were thrown to a distance of 30 to 50 feet, 
and many smaller ones were carried over 100 feet. 
The quantity of powder used was less than two 
pounds. A portion of the useful effect produced 
by the explosion, consisted in the tearing of the 
Fig. 3.— THE STUMP BEFORE THE EXPLOSION. 
stump into such pieces as could easily be sawed up 
into firewood ; by which much after labor in break 
ing it up, when taking it out in the usual manner. 
was saved. This test was perfectly successful, and 
proved not only the thorough effectiveness of the 
new method, but its economy in cost and iu time. 
Several other stumps were taken out in the same 
manner; the time occupied with each being 
from five to ten minutes. Smaller stumps 
were thrown out with single cartridges, and 
in not one case was anything left in the 
ground that might not be turned out with 
the plow, or that would interfere with the 
plowing of the ground. The explosive was 
then tried upon a fast rock, of about 150 cubic 
feet, weighing about 10 tons. The shape of 
the rock before the explosion is shown at 
figure 6. A hole was made, with the bar, in 
the ground beneath the rock, and three car¬ 
tridges were inserted and exploded. To have 
produced this result (shown at figure 7, on 
page 20) by the ordinary method, that was 
here done in a few minutes by one man, 
would have occupied at least two men with 
drills, sledge, etc., two or three days. The 
application of this method is seen to be of 
great value where the saving of time is an 
object. An acre of stumps or rocks may be 
cleared in one day by one or two men, and 
the material left ready for use as firewood, or 
as stone for fences or buildings. The cost in 
money is also reduced in some cases very 
considerably, and almost absolute safety to 
the careful operator is ensured. It would 
Fig.4 be generally advisable to secure the services 
of an expert, and that the parties who have 
work of this character to be performed, should 
jointly engage such a man who could either do the 
whole work, or to do it in part, and instruct a fore¬ 
man or skillful workman sufficiently in a day to 
perform the remainder. The most favorable sea- 
Fig. 6.—THE ROCK AS IT WAS. 
sons for operating upon stumps and rocks are 
fall and spring, when the ground is saturated with 
water. It should be explained that this explosive is 
not injured by water, although a long continued 
exposure to it would affect some qualities of it. 
The Prickly Comfrey. 
Nearly two years ago we received from Eng¬ 
land a circular concerning the Prickly Com¬ 
frey, which made most extraordinary claims as 
to its value as a forage plant, accompanied by 
equally extraordinary engravings. Having 
seen so many of these wonderful plants “ go 
up like a rocket ” at the expense of credulous 
cultivators, and then “ come down like a stick ” 
to the great disgust of the cultivators afore¬ 
said, instead of putting the matter before our 
readers, as we were requested to do, and run 
the risk of disappointing many of them, we pre¬ 
ferred to quietly procure the plant and make 
ourselves somewhat acquainted with it, before 
saying anything about it. The drouth of last 
summer quite interfered with our plans. Our 
experimental garden has a very light sandy soil, 
which in most seasons is preferable for our 
purposes to a stiff heavy one, but in the excep¬ 
tional summer just past all the plants suffered 
heavily, and it is nothing against the Prickly 
Comfrey that it succumhered under conditions 
which native trees, for several years establish- 
