1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
631 
TWO WAYS OF CLEARING LAND. “T 
How Dynamite Does it. 
At our farm we have had a lot of experience in clear¬ 
ing land of stumps, and if some one could have given us 
five years ago the knowledge we have since gained by 
costly experience, it would have been of great value. 
We have had no experience with stump pullers, but 
know that dynamite is a rapid way of disposing of 
stumps. The rule is in clearing land to let stumps 
stand nearly 10 years, but where there are only about 
250 to the acre, it would not seem a great expense to 
blast them out. We use 40 per cent dynamite. It 
costs 1G cents a pound. We have never had an acci¬ 
dent, but advise the greatest of caution. We began 
by using an electric battery, but changing this, which 
weighs 27 pounds, around in the lot. and rearranging 
for every blast 150 feet of wires was found to take 
much more time, and was more expensive than the use 
of fuse. We generally carry in a strong bag the quan- 
tity of dynamite we would use for the time we would 
be gone, and leave it at a safe distance from the work. 
From this bag we take sufficient sticks for an hour of 
work and place it in a basket or large pail, so as to be 
sure it will not get a fall. We put in the basket an 
ordinary meat skewer and a large knife. We cut the 
fuse into pieces from nine to 15 inches long. This 
can be done very rapidly before starting out by running 
the fuse over the flat end of a block and using an ordi¬ 
nary shingling hatchet to cut off the pieces. We put 
the caps on one end of the fuse before we start out, 
and press them on firmly by the use of small pliers. 
We use what is known as the grocers’ match. It 
starts slowly, and the flame bursts out all at once, so 
that the fuse ignites even in quite a breeze. The kind 
of match used saves in a day a lot 
of time. With dynamite, fuse, 
matches and large knife in the 
basket we are ready for business, 
and carry this to every stump, so as 
to have the basket convenient to put 
all these things back into as each 
one is used. We have found a 
crowbar too heavy, and now rec¬ 
ommend an inch and a half auger 
with the shank lengthened out with 
an iron rod so that from handle 
to worm of auger is about five 
feet. In land where there are 
many small stones a crowbar is the 
only thing. 
Whenever the owner of the farm 
has wished to blast, he has found 
it much ea ier to select a season 
when the ground is soft. Holes 
under many stumps can then be 
forced by an ordinary pitchfork 
handle with the tines pulled out. 
This makes about the right-sized 
hole, and is a good thing to push 
the dynamite under the stump, and 
this with the basket is all that is 
necessary to carry except in ex¬ 
ceptional cases, the crowbar and 
auger being left in another part 
of the lot. In beginning we put all dynamite in ground 
first and used a sufficient length of fuse so the end of 
it would show enough to be lighted, but afterward found 
it was not necessary. By imbedding the cap firmly into 
the dynamite, we push the last stick or part of stick 
into the hole after the fuse is lighted. We never use 
any tamping. We buy the best double tape fuse, which 
caps cost 50 cents. 
A person using dynamite should have good judg¬ 
ment, as every stump may require to have the dyna¬ 
mite placed in a different location. For instance, we 
have found that many stumps are blown out with less 
dynamite by placing it under roots on one side, for the 
roots acted as a lever to throw the stump over. If 
there is water in the ground so that dynamite is cov¬ 
ered by it, it may be placed under any part of the 
stump, and a much less quantity is required when cov¬ 
ered by water. It is a large percentage, but it seems 
as if we can accomplish 10 times as much as we could 
when we first began. J. H. R. 
Maine. 
"Yours for the Stump Pullerl" 
In reply to G. W.. Massachusetts, on page 585, perhaps 
a little experience of mine years ago, may encourage 
him to “do it.” Twenty acres of oak, wild cherry, 
Red elm, and stumps, were purchased for $15 per acre 
(rolling land, black sandy loam, with yellow clay sub¬ 
soil). All trees were cut two feet high, except five 
acres which had been cut at the surface, leaving stumps 
from four inches to 15 inches in diameter. This was 
in Towa, and a Hawkeye stump machine, having two 
grip chains and one stump-hook, with 160 feet of five- 
eighths-inch wire cable, two men and one horse, and one 
boy 13 years old to tend the release lever, were hired 
at $4 and board per 10 hours; also two men to clear 
away from stumps and help generally at $1.50 per day 
without board. One horse will pull a stump that one 
dollar of dynamite will not get. One small horse on 
this machine will pull a Red elm, Black cherry or hick¬ 
ory tree 15 inches in diameter out by the roots in 5 to 
10 minutes without any assistance whatever. Dyna¬ 
mite is nowhere on green stumps or timber, but econ¬ 
omical on dead ones. It is easy and rapid to place and 
fire, but always gave the writer a terrific headache, 
and more or less grubbing to get stump loose and out 
of hole. 
As the Hawkeye grubs in a circle the stumps were 
thrown in piles for fuel, but could be put in rows to 
burn with little extra labor. “G. W.” ought to pull 
those stumps for $15 per acre, and land is pulverized two 
feet deep; no more work to “break it,” than to plow 
under corn stubble. One-half the crop of corn, wheat 
or hay, on that land ought to pay all expenses. It 
would make an ideal potato patch, if in Towa, by rais¬ 
ing about 300 to 400 bushels without any fertilizer. By 
all means plow as soon as stumps are off the field, and 
plant and cultivate with the satisfaction of knowing 
your land is paying you annual interest on a valuation 
of $150 to $200 per acre. Don’t “fuddle” with stumps 
and stones to “rot out,” as recommended, nor put up 
with imperfect or surface drainage. "Whatever i- 
worth doing, is worth doing right.” Yours for the 
“stump puller.” geo. purdy. 
Kansas. 
WHEN TO KILL TIMBER. 
On page 584, J. R. T. asks about time to cut elm trees 
to prevent sprouting. Tf he will thoroughly girdle 
an elm or any other tree late in June in this) climate, 
and let the tree stand until the next Spring, he will 
find the tree dead, root and top. I have so treated elms 
for the purpose of preventing sprouts, and with com¬ 
plete success. The explanation is, the root.-, must make, 
like the top, an annual growth to keep alive; and they 
can only make growth when fed by the foliage produced 
on the top the current year, which foliage is first made in 
Spring at the expense of the roots. About June 15 in this 
climate the first growth of most varieties halts and the top 
begins to feed the roots, which are then much exhausted. 
The sap from the roots passes to the top through the sap 
wood formed in previous years, but nourishment from 
the top for the roots can only pass through the growth 
formed the current season, and at the date mentioned 
such growth has not been formed. If the tree is then 
girdled no such growth can be formed, and no nourish¬ 
ment can reach the roots, and they die from starvation 
hastened by the continual drain by the top through the 
sap wood. The roots will be dead before the top is. 
In some parts of the country settlers clear the land by 
girdling the trees and allowing them to stand until they 
fall from decay, which is in much less time than the 
stumps would decay if the trees were cut down green. 
They plant among the dead trees. If trees must be 
cut, I think late in July is the time when most varieties 
would sprout least. This principle of exhaustion of the 
root by Spring growth can be taken advantage of to de¬ 
stroy brush and briers, witch-grass and thistles, or any 
plant which makes a Spring growth at the expense of 
nourishment stored the previous year. Make the at¬ 
tack when the roots are most exhausted. With briers 
this time is when the plant is in full bloom, and the 
same is true of witch-grass. It is a discouraging job 
to kill witch-grass or briers if the attack is made in early 
Spring, as at that season every piece of root will sprout 
vigorously, which sprouting is much feebler when the 
plant is in full bloom. M. morse. 
Massachusetts. 
“A BARREL OF HEN MANURE ” 
What Is It Worth? 
Probably no fertilizer question is more frequently 
asked than this: “What is the value of a barrel of hen 
manure?” It is almost impossible to give a definite an¬ 
swer, because the weight of the barrel varies as well 
as the contents. There may be more sand or water in 
one barrel than in another, but an average weight will 
be about 200 pounds. A number of tilings are responsible 
for differences in quality. The food has much to do 
with it. Of course the manure from a hen eating an 
abundance of insects or. meat, or a mash containing 
wheat, bran or oats, will be richer than that from a 
hen fed on corn. This is because there is more plant 
food in one ration than in the other. Guano is bird 
manure from the dry islands near South America. It 
is much richer than hen manure, because these sea 
birds eat fish almost entirely. Other things that vary 
its value are the feathers, dirt and other matter taken 
up with it. A bulletin from the Maine Experiment Sta¬ 
tion gives six different analyses which were made in 
New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. These vary 
all the way from a little over half of one per cent to 
1J4 per cent of nitrogen, from less than half one per 
cent to one per cent of phosphoric acid, and from one- 
fifth to one-half of one per cent of potash. The aver¬ 
age is in round numbers one per cent of nitrogen, 82 
per cent of phosphoric acid and 31 per cent of potash. 
This probably is not far from the composition of aver¬ 
age hen manure, and is worth about 
three times as much as an equal 
weight of horse manure. Better 
samples are worth more. At the 
Maine Station, Hie droppings from 
180 hens were collected for three 
nights, weighed and analyzed. The 
pure manure, without any “filler,” 
weighed 44j4 pounds, and con¬ 
tained 1.30 per cent or .58 pound of 
nitrogen, 1.83 per cent or .81 pound 
phosphoric acid, and .84 per cent or 
.38 pound of potash. The station 
chemists figure from this that 100 
pounds of fresh hen manure, with 
nothing mixed with it, would be 
worth 55 cents, making a barrel 
worth $1.10. Of course no one ex¬ 
pects that all the nitrogen in the 
fresh manure can be kept. There 
is a steady loss, so that a barrel 
filled with fresh manure will b~ 
worth considerably less than $1 at 
the end of a few months. In our 
section a barrel of hen manure sold 
at auction will bring 50 cents. At 
the Maine Station sawdust was used 
under the roosts with land plaster 
or kainit. The following mixture 
is suggested as a good one to dry 
out the manure and hold its nitrogen, and also to sup¬ 
ply potash and phosphoric acid: 30 pounds hen ma¬ 
nure, 10 pounds sawdust, 16 pounds acid phosphate and 
eight pounds of kainit. We are sometimes asked what 
the manure from a single hen amounts to in a full 
year. In the Maine experiment, the night droppings 
gave at the rate of 30 pounds per hen per year—worth 
at the average price of chemical fertilizers 14 cents. 
Estimating the amount dropped during the day time, 
it is concluded that the total droppings for one hen for 
a full year amount to 75 pounds, worth 25 cents. We 
see from this the value of a flock of hens running at 
large in an orchard. 
A SHORT CHAPTER ON ALFALFA. 
One of the warm spells last February I plowed three 
acres of oat stubble, good and deep, and ’most too wet. 
As soon as it would do in the Spring I began harrow¬ 
ing and rolling, and kept it no about once a week un¬ 
til May 17; then I drilled in 675 pounds of high-grade 
fertilizer with a common grain drill. This I followed 
with a seeder, going over the ground both ways, and 
got on 40 pounds of the best Alfalfa seed I could get. 
I went over it then both wavs with a peg-tooth harrow, 
and left it to grow. July 19 we cut two large loads of 
Alfalfa, pigweed, etc., but enough of the Alfalfa to make 
a good .grade of hav: at least we tried the horses and 
they seemed to like it. At this date, July 28, it gives 
promise of another good cutting. When we drilled in 
the fertilizer there were three or four quarts of oats 
found in the drill, so we set it at the rate of a bushel to 
the acre and let them run in. Where the oats were the 
Alfalfa did not make more than two or three inches’ 
growth, and is not starting much now. T. H. king. 
Tompkins Co., N. Y. 
DINNER OF THE FARM HOME MAKERS’ ASSOCIATION. Fig. 263. 
