Vol. LVI. No. 2499. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 18, 1897. 
*1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE STORY OF A RUN-DOWN FARM. 
BLOWING OUT STONKS ; A CROP OF COW PEAS. 
Part IT. 
In the autumn cf 1895, after satisfying my¬ 
self as to the cause of my apparent failure 
with cow peas, viz., imperfect preparation 
of the soil, and thin seeding, I determined 
on a more thorough and systematic plan of 
action. But just here allow me to digress 
for a moment, long enough to anticipate the 
inquiry, Why so anxious to grow cow peas? 
Well, for several reasons ; one of them was 
that, having undertaken a certain thing 
which, in its way, was a good thing (at least 
persons better informed than myself had 
claimed good things for cow peas where 
they could be grown), I disliked to be beaten. 
Few persons like to be connected with a 
failure. Again the question may be asked, 
Why experiment with an unknown crop ? 
Why not grow clover ? This question is 
easily answered. The soil was so impover¬ 
ished, so completely robbed of organic mat¬ 
ter, that clover wouldn’t catch. This I learned 
by repeated trials on other portions of the 
farm. 
But some readers may feel disposed to ask, 
If your soil was so depleted of vegetable mat¬ 
ter, why not sow rye and plow it under? 
That, certainly, would have been much bet¬ 
ter than nothing at all; but it must be re¬ 
membered that the southern cow pea is, 
botanically speaking, a member of the Legu- 
minosae family, half-brother to Red clover, 
having the same ability to attract and re¬ 
tain atmospheric nitrogen that clover pos¬ 
sesses, through the bacteria infesting the 
roots. Besides, if half of what 1 had read 
concerning cow peas were true, as much 
could be gained in one year from their use, 
as in two of clover. I had, also, discovered, 
from my limited experience, that they were 
gross feeders, and the conviction in my mind 
was a growing one that the best results with 
fertilizers could be obtained by applying 
them to the crop previous to that from which 
I expected my income. In other words, if one 
wish to grow a crop of potatoes for money, 
instead of waiting till next year and apply¬ 
ing direct to the potatoes, put them on the 
crop of cow peas this year, and allow the peas 
to elaborate the fertilizers for the coming 
potato crop. Most of us are like the man who 
always took the last seat in the rear car, on 
a railway train ; he said that by that means, 
he could have the use of his money till the 
conductor came around. Believing myself 
to be on the right track, I became more and 
more determined to succeed with the peas. 
Believing, also, that the presence of so 
many stones as portions of the field con¬ 
tained, was a detriment to the best cultiva¬ 
tion, I made some arrangements for the re¬ 
generation of that field on a more systematic 
basis than any before attempted. In the 
early autumn of 1895, I had a careful man go 
all over the ground with me, and when a 
good-sized stone showed itself, a small stake 
was driven by its side to show the where¬ 
abouts of the stone. Many of them could be 
seen too plainly. Having located all that 
could be seen, the man began with pick and 
shovel to get a hole under those stones. 
First, he would throw the earth away from 
the edge of the stone all the way around, to 
find out something about its size; theni-be- 
ginning at what seemed tosbe its heaviest 
side, he dug down to the bottom, and then 
tunneled under, if possible, to near the center 
of the bulk of the stone. Some holes were 
dug over six feet deep and three feet under. 
After the holes were all arranged, with a 
couple of cases of dynamite on hand, a plenti¬ 
ful supply of fuse and exploders or caps, we 
began the attack. I find that considerable 
judgment is required in blowing out stones 
with dynamite. If one get too much under, 
the stone may be broken up so fine that 
picking up the pieces is rather small busi¬ 
ness. Again, by not loading the hole heavy 
enough, we loosen up the ground under the 
stone and fail to throw it out or break it, and 
have a poor show for another shot. I think 
that, after all, most of us learn wisdom (if 
we ever learn) by our mistakes, rather than 
by our successes. Under some of those 
bowlders, we placed 20 sticks of dynamite in 
a snug pile. The last stick put under was 
opened, a small hole bored in its contents 
with a pointed stick, the fuse having been 
cut to the right length (18 inches is long 
enough), one end inserted in the exploder, 
which was made of the right size to fit nicely, 
^he fuse pushed carefully into the exploder 
so as to come in contact with the nitro¬ 
glycerine contained therein, and the rim of 
the exploder was then pinched tight on the 
fuse. With a small pair of pincers, having 
secured the cap to the fuse, the next pro¬ 
ceeding is to stick the cap in the cartridge in 
which the hole was made, and sometimes it 
seems best to tie a string tightly around the 
end of the cartridge and fuse, so that they 
do not lose connection. Then with the hand, 
cover the whole charge with fine soil, until 
it is safe to use a shovel. We filled the hole 
pretty well up, tramping it down firm, al¬ 
ways taking pains to keep the end of the 
fuse up along the edge of the stone, so as to 
get at it handy to fire, which is done, usually, 
by splitting the fuse a little with a pocket- 
knife, and lighting it with a match. I have 
been thus particular in describing all the 
little details of this work, because I needed 
just such instruction myself, and had to pay 
pretty dearly before I got it. 
After the holes were all loaded, one after 
another they were fired. Most of the stones 
were easily quarried out, but some that lay 
deep, under which had been placed 12 and 14 
sticks of dynamite, were all shattered on the 
underside, while the surface of the stone 
seemed not to have been injured in the least. 
In such cases, a “ mud shot ” was necessary 
on the top. This is made by placing the re¬ 
quisite quantity of explosives on the surface 
of the stone, and the whole charge is covered 
with soft mud which contains no stones, 
and the charge was fired as before. Too 
many fragments of stone in this mud cover¬ 
ing are objectionable, as they sometimes 
come down uncomfortably near. This lot of 
stone was quarried out, thrown on the sur¬ 
face, the holes filled as well as we could, the 
stones hauled off, and preparations made 
for plowing and subsoiling. I noticed that 
the bottom of the' furrow had, by the tread 
of the teams and the pressure of the plow, 
become, apparently, as hard and impervious 
to moisture as the middle of the road. It 
seemed to me that subsoiling might improve 
THE VELVET BEAN. the mechanical condition of the soil; possibly 
A Rival of the Cow pea. Fig. 343. See Page 820. I reasoned, the increased tillage may liberate 
