STUMP PULLERS, ETC. 
xfb 
till at last, the roots becoming torpid, the leaves 
draw off all the free fluid that the trunk contains; 
and when the last supply that it can yield is ex¬ 
hausted, they perish. At that time, the trunk, by 
natural means, is dried to a great degree ; the free 
water lying in its cavities is gone ; and the whole 
fabric acquires a hardness it did not know before. 
Until the leaves are renewed in the succeeding 
spring, but small internal change occurs; the roots 
are torpid and will scarcely act; the pumps are 
broken ; and little more fluid is introduced into the 
wood. Hence it is obvious that the period when 
the timber of a tree is naturally free from moisture 
and therefore least prone to decay, is between the 
fall of the leaf in autumn, and the renewal of veg¬ 
etation in the spring; and the nearer the fall of the 
leaf the most free. 
In this point of view, timber which is intended 
to be durable should be felled late in the autumn or 
in mid-winter. No artificial processes will relieve 
it of its moisture so economically and so well as the 
means which Nature has provided, On the other 
hand, if it is felled when the tissue is full of fluid, 
it is much to be doubted whether any artificial 
methods of exhaustion are capable of seasoning it 
properly. B. 
STUMP PULLERS. 
Various have been the contrivances for the ex¬ 
traction of stumps from new lands; but as they 
have usually been constructed on the principle of 
the windlass, or capstan, they have generally been 
too expensive, and often too unwieldly, for profit¬ 
able use. As a simple method, within the reach of 
all, at a trifling cost, we would recommend the fol¬ 
lowing for removing large stumps. 
Procure a lever, made of dry lever wood, horn¬ 
beam, or red elm, about twenty-five feet long and 
six or eight inches in diameter, and two yoke of 
oxen, with a good stout log chain, to apply to the 
stump, and two other chains, for attaching the oxen 
to the lever. This is all the machinery necessary, 
which may be operated in the following manner:— 
Stump Pulling.—Fig. 67. 
Put the log chain around the stump, a little above 
the ground, and make what is called a “log hitch;” 
lay the lever horizontally on the ground, with the 
large end tightly confined against the stump by 
means of the chain; then hitch the cattle to the 
small end of the lever, and drive them round the 
stump in a circle, of which the lever is the radius. 
Less than one revolution round a stump will gene¬ 
rally twist it out of the ground ; but, should not 
the power thus applied be sufficient to draw the 
stump, then the side roots may be uncovered and 
part of them cut off, when it will be easily removed. 
The cut below, Fig. 68, also represents a very 
cheap and efficient stump machine described in the 
“Albany Cultivator.” It consists of two pieces of 
hard timber, six inches square by two feet in length, 
firmly fastened at the top by a strong band of iron, 
with a cross-piece in the middle, in the shape of a 
three-cornered drag. When applied, it is set astride 
the stump, with a strong eighteen-foot chain fas¬ 
tened to the top of the machine, and to a root on 
the back side of the stump from the team. Two 
yoke of oxen, it is stated, will pull out almost any 
common stump that has been cut from three to 
four years. 
Anothervery useful implement, to attach to small 
stumps, bushes, clumps of roots, and bogs, for the 
purpose of pulling them out of the ground, is 
denoted by Fig. 69. It is made entirely of iron, 
Bush or Root Puller.—Fig. 69. 
with two, three, or four claws. These are hooked 
to the stump, or bush, close to the ground; the 
cattle are then hitched to it by a chain, by which 
the stump or bushes are easily hauled out. In 
clearing or grubbing ordinary land, this machine, 
with a pair of oxen, will do the work of half a 
dozen men. 
Do King Birds Eat Working Bees ?—The king 
bird has been regarded as one of the greatest ene¬ 
mies of the apiarian, in some situations, from the 
fact that it is a devourer of bees. Wilson, the or¬ 
nithologist, suggested that the bird only picked out 
the drones, and never injured the working bees. 
Other close observers have come to the same con¬ 
clusion. One writer states that to test the matter, 
he killed a number of the birds, and though he 
found many drones in their crops, he could find no 
working bees in them. 
