PLOUGHING WITH DYNAMITE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 313, 19 November 1910, Page 3

PLOUGHING WITH DYNAMITE.

_-». To an American, Henry Caldwell, of Spartanburg, is attributed the distinction of being the first farmer to plough his land with dynamite. Exnerience convinced him that on clay soil the ordinary plough was not a success. Though it loosened the surface, it hardened the substrata, with the result that in very wet seasons the ploughed soil would float" away, leaving the land almost devoid of plant food and necessitating the use of expensive fertilisers. More satisfactory was the use of the subsoil plough, which penetrates to about a foot from the surface, but the slight increase in crop production did not justify the greater exertion on the part of man and horse. An observant man, Mr Caldwell had noticed that where stumps had been pulled out, or where any excavation had been made and filled, the soil grew better crops than that surrounding it. Moreover, he found by experience that once the clay, even at a great depth was disturbed, it would never pack to its original condition. So he decided on dvnamite as the solution of his problem, "I began," he says,"by exploding a stick of dynamite in each of my water-melon hills and the resulting increase, amounting to thirty-three per cent, of the crop, allowed me to pay for the dynamite and have an increased profit besides." Then he used dynamite on his cotton fields. He charged two acres of it with i seventy-five pounds of dynamite to the j acre, placing the cartridges in rows about four and a-half feet apart. Negroes in the locality were intensely ' interested and gathered in large forces to see the firing. Neighbours were alarmed, and after removing their household effects sent the sheriff round "to come to an agreement in | regard to inevitable damages." Four | rows were fired at a time, and the I explosions came as fast as a fireworks ! display. After it was all over, the ! ground, according to a writer in the ! "Technical World." looked like a I huge colander set with innumerable | holes, the soil being broken up into j unusually fine particles. The results I in larger crops have been very satis- ! factory. _^_______™ m ».