"SHOOTING" THE LAND.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12750, 23 March 1910, Page 4

"SHOOTING" THE LAND.

The American is nothing if uot en- / terprising, and lie seems to iavo a good denl oi practicality m iiis wovk./ j.lie very latest idea is to use <>xj)'y- i sives to help in breaking up the st»l, I and tiic mode of doing it is thus described by a writer: — "hi some parts or Kansas, and especially in tn<; soutu-east, the surface soil is underlaid with a stratum of compact subsoil or hard-pan, which is impervious to water and impenetrable to the roots of growing grain, grasses, alfalfa, and , many other products of the farm. These strata of so-called hard-pan vary in . thickness, and depth j but, ■however thick or deep they may -lie 5c low the surface, they check the growth of the cereals, grasses, alfalfa, sugar-beets and other tilings which have n<Md to send their roots downward to their natural depth through an easily penetrable subsoil that receives the surplus rainfall and retains I moisture during the' season when moisture is most needed ; but to obtain these advantages it is necessary to break up this hard-pan, and this, is done by. boring 2in. holes down and into the hard» subsoil, and dropping therein a stick of dynamite, prepared vvith a fuse for the purpose. The explosion produced by firing the dynamite pulverrslies the otherwise impervious strata, in a way that it would-be impossible to do in any other manner. "On some farms which I have visited, the hard-pan lies within 6in. of the surface, and varies in thickness from Gin. to 6ft. On such land the roots of corn and other things will go down to the hard-pan, turn off at right ( angles, and draw their nourishment only from the surface soil. To break ' the, lower strata and utilise 36in. or so- of the water that is handed down to us, sometimes in torrents, 'is no light task. It is not so costly from | a financial point of view, but- it takes ' labour, patience, and perseverance. ' In so far as the money is concerned, it will take .80 sticks of powder per acre, which j with' caps and fuses at wholesale price, arc worth about 6s ; everything else essential except the 2in. auger, worth 25., come linder the head of labour, which any farmer can

do at his leisure in dry weather. The increased yield of corn or wheat per acre in one season will richly pay for 'shooting the ground' ; and for alfalfa and sugar-beets it is indispensiblc where the ground is underlaid with a hard subsoil. "Last summer I dynamited eight, acres and seeded it to alfalfa. The ground was level, and when tho fall rains came the water, which formerly stood for days on the ground, was immodiately absorbed, leaving the alfalfa field dry and apparently in good condition."—Exchange. •