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IMPROVEMENT

USE OF EXPLOSIVES
IN FARM WORK

Issued by
NEW YORK CENTRAL & HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD CO.

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Improving Crop Yields
By the Use of

Dynamite

Issued by
FARM BUREAU
The New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Co.

Grand Central Terminal

New York City

Copyrighted 1911
BY

New YorK CENTRAL & Hupson RIVER RAILROAD Co.

PRINTED BY
THE LORD BALTIMORE PRESS
BALTIMORE, MD,

PAGE
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INTRODUCTION

Ne many years ago the farm was about the last place where
one would expect to find up-to-date mechanical appliances.

Steam, explosives, electricity—the factors which have made
the world what it is to-day—were indispensable for the railroad
and the steamboat, the factory and the mine, but the farmer’s work
was generally run on a comparatively small scale, and was mostly
done by the muscles of men or draft animals. “[o-day, however,
the farmer, as well as the manufacturer, the contractor and the miner,
fully appreciates the value of labor-saving devices. E-very up-to-date
farm, large or small, has modern machinery that tends to reduce
the cost of production or to improve farm prcducts.

Explosives were first used in warfare and hunting, then for
blasting. ‘Their early use in mining and excavating was very limited,
but it did not take long to learn that, if used in the right way, they
could do in an instant as much work as a man, or even a machine,
could do in many days. As soon as this was understood, explosives
were applied to new kinds of work and special kinds of explosives
were produced, particularly adapted to these new uses.

The history of the use of explosives in farming has been much
the same as in other industries. At first it was supposed that they
could only be used for loosening stumps, so that they could be dug
out more easily. Later on, after stump blasting had been carefully
studied, and more suitable and cheaper explosives manufactured, it
was found that by far the cheapest and quickest way to get rid of
a stump of any size, no matter what kind of soil it stood in, was
to lift it completely out of the ground, and split it up at the same
time, with explosives.

About this time it was discovered that it was cheaper to blast
out boulders and plant the ground they occupied than to plow around
them. ‘Then some enterprising farmer who had had trouble with
foundations settling, decided that it was a good plan to build his
house and his barns on rock, and learned that it did not cost much

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to do the necessary blasting for foundations and cellars. This led
to the idea of blasting the rock encountered in digging drains, and
in using a small quantity of explosives to hurry along the work
of digging holes for fence posts and for poles. The rock met with
in sinking wells was soon cut through with explosives. Early in
the spring, when the ice came down the streams, and a gorge at
the bridge threatened to cause a flood and carry away the bridge
too, a little dynamite quickly relieved the situation. In lumber
districts, log jams were started in the same way, and the use of a
small quantity of explosives saved time and trouble on the rollway.

A few years ago the plan of breaking up hardpan and other
impervious subsoils was tried by Samuel J. Crawford, then gov-
ernor of Kansas, and a number of other influential Kansans who
were interested in farming. ‘The results of their experiments were
so successful that hardpan is now being blasted quite generally, and
many acres of land, which were practically worthless before they
were blasted, are now bearing phenomenal crops.

The most recently discovered plan of saving money by using
dynamite is in blasting ditches and in draining swamps by blowing
holes through the impervious clay under them. Dynamite has long
been used to shatter rock encountered in digging drains and ditches,
but ditches through earth have never been excavated entirely with
explosives until recently.

Many fruit growers know how great a help dynamite is in
planting fruit trees and in keeping them thrifty. The ground where
the tree is to be planted can be loosened up, and the hole partly
dug, in a moment, by exploding a very small charge of dynamite
a short distance below the surface.

Good roads about the farm are practically indispensable, and
they cannot be built quickly or cheaply without at least some ex-
plosives.

Explosives are also used to advantage for splitting logs for
rails or any other purpose, for felling trees, destroying old buildings
and for almost any kind of work where a strong force, quickly ap-
plied, is desirable. Dynamite is simply concentrated power or
condensed strength. In order to have it work in the correct way,
and move in the right direction, it must be properly harnessed and
the bit kept in its mouth, but this is easily done if the directions
given in this handbook are followed intelligently.

eA N DBO OK’ OF “ERP OSs) 2a.

As time passes, farmers will find other ways of saving money
by using explosives, for the demand for farm products is increasing
so rapidly that greater acreage must be put under cultivation, and
the old acres must increase their yield. In order to do this success-
fully and to meet competition, every device and arrangement that
really saves labor and makes for economy, either in the present or
the future, must be adopted. The farmer who fails to realize
this, and still believes that he can get along in the old way, will
soon find himself hopelessly defeated.

THE FIRST STAGE

nan

CLEARING THE LAND
BLASTING OUT STUMPS
FELLING TREES
SPLITTING LOGS

BLASTING BOULDERS

A FUTURE SUBJECT

CLEARING THE LAND

Eee since the first white man started a permanent settlement
in this country, the transformation of forests into farms has

been continuous. So great is the total of land clearing opera-
tions to-day, and so large is the annual expenditure in this work,
that it has become a factor of prime importance in the national
economy, and the necessity for a careful study of all of its phases,
to the end of improving the various methods now in practice, is every-
where recognized.

If, after the passing of the wood-chopper and the sawmill, the
land were ready for the plow, there would be no problem to solve;
but a great area covered with stumps—thirty, fifty, a hundred, two
hundred to the acre—often with boulders scattered here and there,
is very far from a crop-bearing proposition. ‘lhis, however, is what
many of our farms are made from, and the question is, how to
bring about the necessary transformation without spending more
than the probable returns will warrant.

For generations farmers have chopped, burned and dug away
at stumps which have slowly yielded to their efforts. “To-day a
quicker and more effective way of getting rid of them is imperative.
The subject has been studied and experimented with for years by
the Agricultural Department of the National Government and of
different States, by many large land companies, by railroads and
by thousands of individuals. Numerous ideas and plans have been
suggested and worked out, but none of them has been successful or
economical without the use of dynamite. When explosives are
properly used, stumps and boulders are not only blasted out of the
ground, but are at the same time broken into pieces which can be
easily handled—burned, if stumps, or, if boulders, used for build-
ing roads, etc.

When a stump is properly blasted, but little of the soil is thrown
out with it, and it is not necessary to spend time and money clearing
the earth from the roots, and filling a great hole in the ground, as
must be done when the stump is taken out with a stump puller.

HANDBOOK OF *hXPL OS kya.

Neither is any special fertilization of the spot formerly occupied
by the stump necessary to bring it into proper crop-bearing condi-
tion, as must be done after a stump has been burned out.

Only a very small outlay is necessary at one tme when explo-
sives are used, and one man can work with them just as well as a
dozen or a hundred. When the proper explosive is selected, and

A FIVE-FOOT DIAMETER WASHINGTON FIR WINDFALL SHOWING
THE ENORMOUS SPREAD OF THE ROOTS

when it is used in the right way, there is no cheaper method of get-
ting rid of stumps or boulders. |

There are many kinds of dynamite, each expressly intended to
do a particular kind of work, and as the conditions under which
stumps and boulders are blasted differ widely, it is not possible to
recommend any one grade for general use.

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On the Pacific Slope, where the stumps are of great size, stump-
ing powder is the favorite, but in other parts of this country, where
the stumps are smaller, dynamite is used almost exclusively.

It is equally difficult to state accurately, the quantity or strength
of the explosive necessary to blast out a stump of a given diameter.
This is because the size of the stump is not the only factor, and
perhaps not even the most important one, to consider when esti-
mating the charge required. Whether the soil in which the stump
stands is wet or dry, light or heavy, the kind of wood, age of the
stump, the nature and position of the roots, etc., are all matters of
great importance when determining the quantity, strength and loca-
tion of the charge of explosives. Careful records have, however,
been kept of the cost of explosives, including blasting caps and
fuse or electric fuzes, used in blasting stumps in different parts of
the country, some of which we give below:

jenn SES
705, Southerne ine: SEUIMPSé..4s60. a «ele sie ss Zo 30c
78 Oak, Walnut, Gum, etc., Stumps in Illinois 30” Joe
329 White Pine, Oak, Maple, Birch, etc.,
Slump seine Viichigane ss. ns sek oe Be! 47c
37 Apple, Ash, Oak and Chestnut Stumps in
Prennsyvaniae = sks. 2 w set eek: 341,’ 56c
i7 Washmgton Pir Stumps =... 2. 5.0064 De SiS

The explosive used in most cases, except for blasting the Wash-
ington firs, was 40 per cent. dynamite. The fir stumps were blasted
with 20 per cent. strength stumping powder and low powder (5
per cent. strength). These calculations are based on retail, not
wholesale prices.

Records kept by A. J. McGuire, Superintendent of the North-
east Experimental Farm of the University of Minnesota, show
even lower costs.

Some of Mr. McGuire’s records are as follows:
Average Cost

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255 Jack Pine, Norway Pine and White Pine 1414” 18c
395 Birch, Ash, Spruce, Pine, etc..........- 20% 16c

HANDBOOK OF" EXP £ ODay

Mr. McGuire used 25 per cent. to 40 per cent. ammonia
dynamite, and states that the best and most economical results were
had with 25 per cent. and 27 per cent. grades.

The Iowa State College recently blasted eighty-two oak and
elm stumps and trees averaging 20 inches in diameter, at an aver-
age cost of about 38 cents each for explosives. .

On a large land clearing operation in Minnesota during the
summer of 1909, eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy stumps
were blasted out. Although a considerable number of these were

WASHINGTON FIR STUMPS

large pine stumps, an average of less than three-quarters of a pound
of dynamite per stump was used.

Accurate records of the cost of blasting stumps on a Long Island
farm, including the wages of the men who did the work, were
recently kept by representatives of the Long Island Railroad Com-

Gi EA. Rel NG Dae aA 2Neeb

pany. ‘The entire cost of blasting out and burning up one hundred
stumps was only $16.

Although one unaccustomed to using explosives might find the
costs running higher at the start than some of those given above,
it does not require an unusual amount of experience to learn approxi-
mately the minimum charge required to blast stumps.

When cut-over land, which is covered with stumps and
boulders, can be cleared, and turned into farms at a profit, it is
hard to understand why anyone should let stumps or boulders take
up valuable land, plowing around them year after year. A lot of
time is wasted swinging around even a few stumps and boulders
when plowing a field, to say nothing of the damage to plow, harness
and team if a root is struck. Besides this, each medium-sized stump,
with its spreading roots, or even a comparatively small boulder,
will take up the space of many stalks of corn or of other crops. It
has been estimated that a single stump of average size occupies as
much ground as would support six hills of corn.

The corn from six hills would in a very few years

pay for enough dynamite to blow out many stumps

and boulders.

One suggestion which should be made to those who have land
to clear is: Always do your stump blasting, if possible, when the
ground is wet. Almost every kind of ground when it is wet, offers
stronger resistance to the action of dynamite than it does when dry.
Therefore, when the ground is wet a stump or boulder can be
blasted out with less dynamite than when the same ground 1s dry.

One of the most objectionable methods of trying to get rid of
stumps is burning them out. When stumps have been blasted out
and split up with dynamite, it is an easy matter to heap up the
pieces and burn them, but to burn a standing stump is a different
proposition. “Those who have tried it can testify to the time spent
in keeping the fire going, and that it is practically impossible in this
way to get rid of much of the stump below the surface of the ground.
Probably the worst feature of burning out stumps is the damage

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done to the ground by the fire, which burns out the humus to such
an extent that it requires much cultivation to bring the ground where
the stump was burned into good condition. ‘The following from

the Tacoma, Wash., ““Ledger’’ of October 20, 1909, explains very

clearly the damage done to new land by burning out stumps:

“Last summer Prof. W. J. McGee, of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, in cooperation with Prof. Henry
Landes, Dr. Benson and Dr. Fry, of the State Univer-
sity, studied the best methods of utilizing cut-over or
logged-off lands. Prof. McGee gives some of the find-
ings, and they argue strongly against burning cut-over
lands. Fire destroys the humus in the soil, and when the
humus is gone, the fertility is greatly lessened. The danger
of burning logged-off lands is that the fire will burn the
humus for some distance below the surface. When the
humus is burned out, it takes time to build up a fertile
soil again. ‘The fire destroys the work it took nature
many years to do.’’

The implements needed in stump and boulder blasting are few
and inexpensive, and most of them are always to be found on the
farm.

Big stumps like those found along the Pacific Coast usually
require a comparatively bulky charge of low-grade explosives.
which means that a large hole must be dug. In case the stump is
very large it is best to dig a trench under it, using a little dynamite
to assist in the digging. In this work a pick or mattock and a long-
handle shovel are necessary. As a matter of fact these two tools,
and an axe, are usually required, no matter how the hole for the
explosive is made.

For medium-size and smaller stumps, a two-inch wood augur
to drill under the stump (and into the tap root if there is one), is
necessary, and a crowbar with one pointed end and one chisel end
is very useful. One of the most important implements used in stump
blasting, is the tamping stick. This must have no metal about it.
The tamping sticks used on the Pacific Coast are six to eight feet
long and two to three inches in diameter. For tamping the holes
under other stumps a stick five or six feet long and one and a half
inches in diameter is large enough.

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For blasting large boulders it may be necessary to use a ham-
mer and hand drill, unless they are to be broken by mudcapping
or by placing the explosive underneath them. ‘The hole under the
boulder can be made with a crowbar. If the boulder is drilled,
a small tamping stick, from one-half to three-quarters of an inch in
diameter should be used. If the charge is put under the boulder,
the tamping stick should be one and a half inches in diameter and
five or six feet long. Hardwood tamping sticks are, of course, best,
because they last longest.

ONE MORE OUT OF THE WAY

dWNLS AHL YAQNN AIOH AHL ONIYOS

BLASTING STUMPS

[! IS usually necessary in blasting stumps to place the charge as
close as possible to the toughest part of the stump, so that the
part most difficult to break will be hit first and hardest. Gen-
erally this spot will be directly under the middle of the stump, and
it is sometimes necessary to bore into the tap root. When a very
big stump is rotten at the middle, but has several large branching
roots, better results will be had if the charge is increased a little
and located deeper in the ground, or if under each of the large roots
a small charge is placed, and all of the charges fired simultaneously
with a blasting machine.

STUMP BOUND WITH CHAIN

In order to keep the explosive from splitting the stump, and
wasting a part of the force which should be expended in lifting
it out, it is the practice of some blasters to wind a stout chain around
the stump several times. It is a good idea to use a chain with all
hollow stumps.

Some large stumps can be effectively removed by exploding
simultaneously charges loaded in holes bored from different sides,
so that they will intersect under the center of the stump. The
cartridge containing the detonator (blasting cap or electric fuze)

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should be loaded first, so that it will be at the intersection of the
holes; then the different holes should be loaded, making sure that
the first cartridge in each hole touches the primer (the cartridge
containing the detonator). When the primer is exploded, it will
explode the entire charge.

If the above directions are closely adhered to, the general run
of stumps can be blown out satisfactorily and cheaply. The stumps
of some kinds of trees, however, require special treatment to get the
best results, and detailed instructions concerning them are given in
the following pages.

Southern Pine Stumps

The use of explosives in blasting southern pine stumps, espec-
ially in very sandy soils, has not been generally recommended in
the past, because the cost has seemed high in comparison with the
value of the land. ‘The increased value of land and the improve-
ments in explosives have, however, now made it entirely feasible to
remove these stumps with dynamite. This work can be done with
less dynamite, if a good team of horses with a bull chain is used to
pull out pieces and drag them from the field.

Pine stumps should be considered in two classes—those with
tap roots and those without. ‘The first part of a pine stump to rot Is
the tap root, and a field that looks very discouraging will often be
found easy to clear.

In blasting southern pine stumps the important feature is to
place the explosive close to the point of greatest resistance, which
is in the tap root directly under the center of the stump. This
tap root can usually be located by digging underneath the smooth
side of the stump. When the tap root is located, dig an opening,
one to two feet deep, down by the side of the tap root; then bore
an augur hole two inches in diameter into the tap root on an angle
of from 35 degrees to 50 degrees. The augur hole should be
bored not less than three-quarters of the way through the tap root;
care being taken not to drill entirely through, for by so doing a
great deal of the explosive force would be wasted in the back of
the hole, which would then be in the ground. Load with from one
to three 114 x 8-inch cartridges (depending on the size and age of
the stump), of 40 per cent. dynamite, and tamp firmly to the sur-
face with damp clay. ‘The blast will cut off the tap root twenty

BLASTING STUMPS AT

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Ooi se AR TONG sla os Cea Ee Ac aN, D

to thirty-six inches below the surface and turn out the stump in
pieces. [hese stumps can also be blown out without taking the
time to bore into the tap root, if a little larger charge of dynamite
be placed firmly against the tap root a foot or two below the sur-
face and closely confined with tamping. A convenient implement
for making the hole in the ground when blasting in this way is a three-
inch post-hole augur.

When the tap root is to be bored into, it is advisable to use a
two-inch wood auger, as the dynamite can then be more closely
compressed under the center of the stump where the resistance is
greatest. If clay cannot be found to tamp the charge under the
first stump blasted, use sand. After one stump is blasted, you can
usually find good tamping material at the bottom of its roots.

Careful record was recently kept, in order to arrive definitely
at the exact cost of explosives necessary to properly blast out these
southern pine stumps. Ihree hundred and twenty-five stumps were
blasted which averaged in diameter 28!/y inches, and the cost of
explosives, including dynamite fuze and blasting caps, or electric
fuzes, averaged a little more than 18 cents per stump.

Southern pine stumps without tap roots are sometimes found
in land having a sandy top soil with a hard subsoil. In this case
30 per cent. dynamite may give the best results. The charge
should be placed under the middle of, and as close to the stump as
possible.

Second-Growth Stumps

There is often directly under a second-growth stump, the
decayed remains of the original stump; this is soft, and the force of
the explosive when placed on it, seems to merely scatter this dead
wood and has no marked effect upon the stump. ‘To overcome
this difficulty, it is a good plan to dig under the stump and place
a good-sized flat stone between the roots, leaving only room on
top of the stone for the dynamite. Damp clay should then be
firmly packed around the dynamite. ‘This gives the explosive suffi-
cient resistance to lift out the stump. 30 or 40 per cent. dynamite
should be used. It should be remembered that best results will be
had from the explosives recommended for blasting the above stumps,
if they are exploded with No. 6 or stronger detonators.

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Western Fir, Pine and Cedar Stumps

In the States of Washington, Oregon and California, where
the rainfall is large and the ground in the forests is always damp,
many of the trees grow to great size—some being eight or ten feet
in diameter. ‘The roots of these trees usually spread out near the
surface and do not grow deep into the ground, as might be expected,
tap roots being extremely rare. The object when blasting the
stumps of these trees is not to split them, but to bring them out
entire at one blast, with all of the roots possible, because if the
charge of explosives is so gauged and located as to split the stump,
it generally fails to bring out all of the pieces. As the principal
object is to get out as much of the stump as possible at a minimum
cost, it is better to blast it out first and then it can be easily split
afterward, by means of a small quantity of dynamite exploded in
auger holes.

The common rule in blasting these stumps is to use one and
one-half pounds of stumping powder per foot of diameter, with
stumps up to four feet, when the bottom is clay. For larger sizes it
is advisable to use two to two and one-half pounds of this powder
for each foot in diameter. For stumps in gravelly or loose ground
one pound more should be used for each foot in diameter.

The charge of explosives is best placed when there is sixteen
to twenty-four inches of earth between the charge and the bottom
of the stump. ‘This results in the force of the explosion radiating
to all sides, lifting the stump clear of the ground, and bringing with
it the greatest length of roots. If the charge is placed too close
to the stump, the effect is to split it, leaving the roots to be dug out
at extra labor and expense. It is advisable with large stumps to
chamber, or expand, the bottom of the hole, so that the entire charge
can be concentrated under the center of the stump. To do
this a hole is bored beneath the stump by means of a dirt auger
or small post-hole auger. In this hole a small charge is usually
exploded with fuse and blasting cap and no tamping is used. The
quantity of explosives to be used in chambering, depends, of course
on the size of the charge necessary to blast out the stump. Usually
from half a cartridge to two cartridges of stumping powder will
be sufficient. After the hole is chambered the blasting charge should
be loaded in the usual way and thoroughly tamped.

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Redwood and *Bigtree Stumps

The best explosive for these stumps is a comparatively slow-
acting explosive, which has more of a lifting and heaving, than a
shattering effect. |

The way to approximately estimate the quantity of explosive
necessary to blast out stumps larger than eight feet in diameter, is
to square the largest diameter in feet, the result being approximately
the number of pounds required. For example, if a stump is eight
feet in diameter the largest way, the charge should be about sixty-
four pounds. Stumps less than eight feet in diameter require a
little greater charge for their size than do the larger stumps, and
the rule with them is to use as many pounds as eight times the largest
diameter in feet. On this basis a stump six feet in diameter would
need about forty-eight pounds of powder. However, the success-
ful blasting of these large stumps depends greatly on the judgment
of the blaster, and these rules can only be considered as a general
guide. [his can easily be understood when it is remembered that,
owing to difference in soil or some peculiarity in the growth of the
tree, it sometimes requires the same quantity of explosives to properly
bring out a stump six feet in diameter as it does one eight feet in
diameter.

In blasting these stumps a trench is dug large enough to per-
mit placing the entire charge of explosives directly underneath the
center of the stump. A little dynamite blasted in holes punched
with a crowbar will prove of great assistance in digging this trench.
If low powder is used and the ground is wet, the charge should be
placed in a waterproof bag.

A detonator equivalent to, or stronger than, a No. 6 blasting
cap, or electric fuze, should always be used in one of the prim-
ing cartridges. [he proper way to make the primer is shown on
pages 88 and 90. If several cartridges are used as a primer, they
should be tied in a compact bundle with the primed cartridge in
the center.

Avoid being on the same side of the stump as the trench when
the blast is fired, as fragments, etc., are thrown with more violence
and to greater distances on that side.

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Stumping powder is also used in blasting California redwood
stumps. The illustration on page 28 shows two large redwood
stumps which had practically one root below the surface, although
this root had separated above ground into two trees. The cir-
cumference of the stump just above the surface of the ground was
seventy-five feet. This stump was completely removed, as shown
on pages 28, 30 and 32, with ninety-three pounds of stumping
powder. Six trenches were dug under the stump at different points,
five of these being loaded each with twenty-five 1!/% x 8-inch car-
tridges of this explosive, and the sixth with thirty 1'4 x 8-inch
cartridges. [hese charges were then connected up electrically, and
the trenches were thoroughly and compactly tamped above the
explosives to the surface of the ground. The six charges were
then fired simultaneously with a blasting machine. The illustration
on page 28 shows the blasting machine used and the cartridges of
stumping powder on the ground preparatory to charging the trenches.

Cypress Stumps

Cypress stumps are found, as a rule, in swamps where the
soil is a soggy muck often covered with water. [Through the land-
reclaiming operations in the Southern States many of these swamps
have been drained, leaving land of wonderful fertility. “The cypress
stumps have no tap root, but have large “spreaders” reaching out in
all directions to such an extent that they are interwoven with those
of neighboring stumps, forming a tangle of roots that never rot.
The strongest and quickest dynamite in the hands of careful blasters
gives the best results in this work. [he common practice Is to place
114 x 8-inch cartridges under each of the principal spreaders, and
fire all simultaneously by means of a blasting machine. ‘The cypress
wood, being extremely soft, splits easily, and the quick explosive
shatters the stump and releases it from the entangling roots.

In order to obtain the best results in blasting cypress stumps the
electric system of blasting should be employed. Sixty per cent.
dynamite detonated with a No. 6 electric fuze is recommended for
this work. |

When cypress stumps are not blasted until after the swamps
have been drained, 40 per cent. dynamite should be used.

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FELLING TREES

Occasionally when clearing land of growing timber, it is of
advantage to blast out the entire tree and saw off the root after-
ward. ‘The process here is exactly the same as in stump blasting,
but little, if any, more dynamite being required to bring out the
tree, roots and all, than to blast the stump after the tree has been
cut. The blast lifts the tree straight up a foot or two; then it falls,
generally with the wind.

SPLITTING STUMPS AND LOGS

When stumps, particularly large ones, are blasted out whole
or nearly so, it is usually necessary to split them up so that they can
be conveniently handled or burned. This can be readily accom-
plished with dynamite; only a small quantity being required, if the
charge is properly tamped in auger holes bored part way through
the stump.

In the South the pine stumps are very large producers of tur-
pentine and by-products. Before the wood in the stump can be
distilled, it must be broken into pieces small enough to suit the
retort. Nothing is so effective as dynamite for breaking up a stump
for this purpose. Charges of a few inches of dynamite exploded
simultaneously in several auger holes bored in the stump, will shatter
it into exactly the size required.

When logs are split up to be burned quickly, the same method
is used as when splitting stumps; but if they are to be split for fence
rails, cord-wood, charcoal, or other purposes where comparatively
even and regular sections are required, blasting powder may be used.
This explosive is so much slower in action than dynamite that a
series of properly gauged and properly placed charges will split a
log along the grain, just as evenly as if a number of wedges were
used. This method of splitting logs is so much quicker, cheaper and
easier than any other, that those who have once become proficient
at it, never give it up. Auger holes are bored along the line of the
grain, about one-quarter to one-half of the way through the log, the
depth of the holes and the distance between them depending on the
kind of wood, the grain and the diameter of the log. A few ounces
of FF blasting powder is put into the bottom of each hole, care
being first taken to see that the hole is dry, then wooden plugs are

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driven firmly into the tops of the holes to tamp or confine the
charge. In some kinds of wood it is best to leave a considerable
air space between the bottom of the plug and the powder. The
plugs must have a groove in the side large enough to admit the
electric squib wires or fuse. As blasting powder is exploded by a
spark or flame it is not necessary to use a detonator (blasting cap or
electric fuze) when blasting with it. If electric squibs and a blast-
ing machine are used for exploding the charges, they can all be
fired simultaneously. ‘This usually is the best and cheapest way,
as a little less powder is required than when the charges are ex-
ploded separately with fuze. Electric squibs are similar in appear-
ance to electric fuzes, except that they have a paper capsule instead
of a copper cap. They do not explode when the electric current
passes through them, but ignite the blasting powder by a flash.
When using electric squibs, it is only necessary to have the groove
or channel in the sides of the wooden plugs large enough for the two
small wires to run through it, if the cap of the electric squib is put
in place before the plug is driven in. When driving the plug care
must be taken that the wires are kept free, and that the insulation
on them is not abraded. If it is not convenient to provide wooden
plugs in this work, damp clay tamping may be used on top of a wad
of newspaper. A log two feet in diameter, and four or five feet
long, can usually be split in two with one two-ounce charge of FF
blasting powder, fired as described above. Longer logs require two
or more holes, and logs of greater diameter require heavier charges.
The holes should be from one and one-eighth to two inches in
diameter.

Logs up to six feet in length can be split at once into a number
of pieces, by exploding a single charge of low-grade dynamite
in a hole bored about twelve or fourteen inches straight into the
center of one end. ‘Two ounces is about the right charge for a
log two feet in diameter.

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BOULDER BLASTING

THE BOULDER-BEFORE THE BLAST

4 PINE are three ways in which boulders can be blasted.
These are known as ‘“Mudcapping,” “Snakeholing’”’ and

“Blockholing.”” “‘Mudcapping” and “Snakeholing”’ are the
easier and quicker methods, but require more dynamite. It is
almost impossible to shatter large round boulders of hard rock by
either of these methods, without using an excessive quantity of ex-
plosives, which makes blockholing necessary with boulders of this

kind.

Mudcapping (“Doby Shooting” or “Blistering”’)

Boulders may frequently be broken by exploding a small
charge of dynamite on their surface. The charge should be placed
on the spot which would be struck with a sledge if the boulder was
to be broken in that way. The dynamite should be packed in a solid
mass by slitting the paper cartridge shells, but should not be spread
over the surface of the boulder any more than absolutely necessary.
A blasting cap crimped on to fuse should be placed in the middle
of the charge, and the whole covered with six inches of damp clay
or sand. This material should be pressed firmly over the mass of
dynamite, care being taken not to cover the free end of the fuse.

BLASTING A BOULDER

Cee AUR | N-G ae, kA ND

It is advisable if the boulder is deeply imbedded in the ground, to
dig away or loosen some of the earth surrounding it before blasting.

If the boulder is cracked or seamy, the best results may be
secured by placing the charge in some depression and covering it
with a quantity of clay or sand. This will furnish more resistance
and make available a greater force from the explosive.

The quantity and grade of explosives required naturally de-
pend on the size and shape of the boulder. The “‘grain” and kind
of rock are also important points. Forty per cent. dynamite is the
grade recommended, and the quantity required will vary from one
to ten pounds, the latter quantity being necessary only when the
boulder is a very large one. ‘The dynamite should be exploded
with a No. 6 detonator.

Snakeholing

Proceed as in stump blasting, taking care that the hole in the
ground be made under a flat or hollow side of the boulder and
not ‘under a bulging side. Make a hole with a crowbar or a dirt
auger, close up under the center of the boulder and load the
dynamite into the hole in the same manner as you would for stump
blasting. Care should also be taken when the charge 1s placed,
to leave no means by which the force of the dynamite may escape.
If it has not been thoroughly tamped, or if it is too near the surface
of the ground, and not in the proper position beneath the boulder,
the dynamite may blow the dirt out and leave the boulder un-
touched.

Dynamite of 30 per cent. to 40 per cent. strength should be
used when breaking up boulders in this way. Only from one-half
to two-thirds the quantity of dynamite that would be required to
mudcap the same boulder, is needed provided the boulder has a
hollow or concave side underneath. ‘The results are better in damp,
heavy soil than in light or sandy soil.

Blockholing

This is the most economical method of using dynamite to
break up boulders, and although it takes some time and labor to
drill the one or more necessary holes in the boulder, it will often
be found the most satisfactory in the long run. The holes in large

HANDBOOK OF “EOP bO@Bi2 ae

eee ee

boulders should be an inch or more in diameter, while three-quarters
or seven-eighths of an inch will answer for the smaller ones. To
properly break up a boulder weighing about ten tons, a hole should
be drilled in it from ten to twenty inches deep, as the shape and grain
of the rock may demand, and large enough in diameter to hold a
pound or more of dynamite with the necessary tamping. Smaller
boulders require holes from four to six inches in depth, which, if
necessary, can be filled full of dynamite, and no tamping used.

30 per cent. dynamite will usually give best results in
blockholing, unless the boulders are very large and hard, when 40
per cent. should be used.

THE BOULDER—AFTER THE BLAST

THE SECOND STAGE

GETTING THE FARM IN SHAPE
DIGGING DITCHES
DRAINING SWAMPS
GRADING ROADS

EXCAVATING FOR BUILDING
FOUNDATIONS AND CELLARS

SINKING WELLS

DIGGING HOLES FOR FENCE-
POSTS

GETTING THE FARM IN SHAPE

WEEN the land has been cleared the work of getting the farm
into shape begins. Ditches must be dug to properly drain
the fields—particularly the swampy ones, where often the

best soil is found. Roads must be constructed, wells sunk, barns,
houses and other buildings erected, fences built, and so on. Dyna-
mite Is necessary in every one of these operations, if the work is to
be done expeditiously and economically. The information to be
found in the succeeding pages, as well as that already given, has been
secured entirely from farmers and others who have used explosives
for the various purposes described.

DITCHING

Ditches for draining, and trenches for pipe lines and tiling,
are necessary on every farm, and should always be dug with ex-
plosives. ‘he ditching which pays best is that which drains swampy
lands. There are about seventy million acres of this land in the
United States, much of which would bear magnificent crops, if
drained. The cost of draining by the usual method of digging
ditches by hand or machine, has been almost prohibitive, with the
result that this land is still lying idle. Now that it has been found
that dynamite will dig ditches through any swamp where a man can
penetrate, no matter how thick the vegetation covering it may be,
there is no reason why the large majority of this seventy million acres
of swamp land should not be cultivated.

When a ditch is blasted there is no outlay for expensive equip-
ment, because the only machinery necessary is an iron bar, pointed
at one end. In hard, dry ground, a sledge or maul is needed to
drive the bar down to the necessary depth. ‘There is no delay and
expense getting machinery into place through swamps and thickets.
Not even a team is needed when ditches are dug with dynamite,
for one or two men can easily carry sufficient dynamite to dig a
ditch four or five hundred feet long, four or five feet wide, and
three or four feet deep.

HOLIG V ONILSV1¢d

Ma ae ME ee

SEerrING THE FARM IN. SHAPE

When ditches are dug with dynamite the material taken from
the ditch is practically all thrown out by the blast, and little or no
shoveling is necessary. This material is not heaped up along the
sides of the ditch, where it would occupy land that should be raising
crops, and would prevent free drainage into the ditch, but is spread
evenly over the ground for a considerable distance on each side of
the ditch.

Ditches can be dug with dynamite at any time on a couple
of hours’ notice, as dealers who handle explosives can be found in
almost every locality. In wet weather, especially after heavy rain
falls, when it may be necessary to cut ditches and channels in a
hurry, this method is invaluable.

It is just as easy to dig a curved ditch with dynamite as it is
to dig a straight one, because the center of the ditch follows the
line of holes in which the dynamite is loaded.

Although a channel or ditch dug with dynamite, and
particularly one cut through dry or sandy ground, is not so even
and regular at first as one dug by hand or machine, it will square up
very soon after water fills it, and, as the banks have a good slope,
there is little caving afterward.

How it is Done

Dynamite digs the cleanest and most regular ditches in wet
clay or gumbo. In this kind of ground it is not necessary to put
the holes so close together, or to use quite so much dynamite as when
the clay is only damp. In dry clay, sand marl, or other loose ground,
the weaker and consequently less expensive grades of dynamite give
best results.

If the soil is very light, it may occasionally be necesary to “‘trim
up” the ditch a little by hand after the blast, but even then it is
at least 25 per cent. cheaper to dig the ditch with dynamite than
by machine, and it is also many times quicker.

When ditches are dug in wet clay it is best to explode the
dynamite with blasting cap and waterproof fuze. If the holes are
spaced the proper distance, only the hole in the middle of the
row requires a blasting cap, as the explosion of the dynamite in this
hole explodes that in the next holes on either side, and so on almost
instantaneously from hole to hole, to the two opposite ends of the

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Git rING THE FARM IN SHAPE

row. This plan of exploding the dynamite in one hole by that in
the next hole, instead of putting a detonator in each hole, works
best in wet ground, and when the ground and water are not cold.
The temperature of the air, water and ground is an important point.
If it is below 50 degrees F., the dynamite may become so insensitive
that the charge in one hole will not explode the next one. It is,
therefore, recommended that whenever possible, this work be done
when the ground is wet and the weather warm.

When all conditions are favorable the holes can be spaced two
feet apart, put down three feet and loaded with one cartridge,
11% x 8 inches of 50 per cent. or 60 per cent. dynamite, for a ditch
four feet deep and six feet wide at the top. Three men can dig a
thousand feet of this ditch in three days, with two hundred and
fifty pounds of dynamite, and at about one-third of the cost of any
other method. Fifty, sixty, or even a greater number of holes, can
be blasted simultaneously with a blasting cap in the middle hole
only. Sometimes as much as a quarter of a mile of ditch is blasted
in this way at once, but unless a number of men are loading the
holes it is not advisable to blast so much at one time, because the
dynamite in the holes first loaded will be under water so long, before
the last holes are loaded, that it may deteriorate. [he middle hole
should be loaded heavier than the others—say, with three cartridges
instead of one cartridge, one of them being the “primer’’; that is,
the cartridge in which the blasting cap crimped to the fuze has been
placed. It is also a good plan to load the next hole on either side of
the middle one with three cartridges instead of one. When water
covers the holes, or almost fills them, it acts as a tamping, and no
other tamping is necessary. [he middle hole should be loaded last.
so as not to keep the blasting cap and fuse under water longer than
absolutely necessary. The blasting cap SHOULD BE CAREFULLY
CRIMPED TO THE FUSE WITH A CAP CRIMPER, and NOT with a
knife or the teeth. After the blasting cap has been crimped to the
fuse, thick grease or tallow (not oil) should be spread over the
fuze where it enters the blasting cap. You cannot be sure that
everything will work satisfactorily, unless you use a high-grade of
waterproof fuze and a No. 6, or stronger, blasting cap. Blasting
caps are weakened by dampness, so it is always better to use a grade
stronger than one which would only just explode the dynamite.

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me TING THE FARM IN -SHAPE

Always cut the end of the fuse squarely across, and always
put the fresh cut end in the blasting cap.

The iron or steel bars for punching the holes in the ground
should be a little larger in diameter than the dynamite cartridges,
sharpened to a blunt point on one end and at least two feet longer
than the depth of the ditch. For making holes in dry ground,
where the bar is driven down with sledges or mauls, it is a good
plan to have it only long enough to extend about four inches above
the surface when the hole is deep enough. This short bar should
have a ring or collar welded on close to the top, so that it can be
easily loosened with a crowbar if it becomes fast. The bars should
have a blunt point and not a long, tapering one, because the dyna-
mite cartridge cannot be easily forced to the bottom of a hole if made
by the latter.

BAR FOR PUNCHING THE HOLES

The labor of punching the holes may be reduced by spacing
them farther apart, but when this is done it is necessary to increase
each charge of dynamite. If under the conditions described above
the holes were spaced three feet instead of two feet apart, the
charge of dynamite in each one should be increased to one and a
half 114 x 8-inch cartridges.

Ditches up to sixteen feet wide can be dug with dynamite, but
for this width three rows of holes placed alternately, as shown below,
are necessary.

The rows should be about the same distance apart as the

distance between the holes in the row.

When deeper ditches are wanted, the holes must be put down
deeper, and larger charges of explosives be used.

A ditch, two or two and one-half feet deep, and five feet wide,
can be blasted through wet clay or gumbo at a cost of 11/2 cents,
or less, per lineal foot of ditch.

HANDBOOK OF EXPE O37

One Missouri farmer recently stated that a ditch which he
had just dug through swampy land with dynamite for $100, would
have cost $400 or $500 if it had been dug in any other way.

When the clay or gumbo is only moderately wet or damp, it
is necessary to locate the holes closer together, if a blasting cap 1s
used in only one of them, as the shock from exploding dynamite will
not carry as far through the dryer ground, as it will through wet
ground or water; and it will not carry as far through light or loose
earth, as through that which is close and heavy. The distance
between the holes in clay, which is only damp, should not be
greater than a foot and a half; and in wet sand, from a foot to a
foot and a half.

When the ditch is to be dug through dry ground, it is neces-
sary to have a detonator (blasting cap and fuse or electric fuze),
in each hole, and to tamp with damp earth above the explosives to
the top of the hole. The best plan is to fire a number of holes at
one time by electricity, so that each charge can help the other.

Although it takes a little longer to dig ditches with dynamite
in dry ground than it does in wet ground, because each hole must
be primed, it is but little, if any, more expensive, as the holes can be
spaced from two and a half to three feet apart, and a lower grade of
dynamite can be used. ‘The proper explosive for blasting dry
ground in this way is dynamite of 25 per cent. to 40 per cent.
strength, of which about two 1'4 x 8-inch cartridges should be
used in each hole.

In blasting ditches, as in all other blasting, the grade and
quantity of explosives to use, and the spacing and depth of bore
holes, are governed by the kind of ground in which the work is to
be done, whether it is wet or dry, and by the size of the ditch to
be dug.

If lateral ridges are left in the bottom of the ditch, the holes
should be spaced a little closer in the next attempt. Sometimes the
material blasted out is thrown farther away from the ditch if the
holes are put down at an angle of about 45 degrees instead of
vertically.

There is a great deal of difference between the way an explo-
sive acts in close, wet ground, which offers considerable resistance,
and the way it acts in open dry ground, offering very little resistance.
Consequently it is necessary, in order to get the best work out of

See rtiNG THE FARM IN SHAPE

explosives, that is, to make them do the most work possible for the
money they cost, to use one kind in close, wet ground, and another
kind in open, dry ground. It is also cheapest to space the holes
and to fire the explosives differently according to the kind of ground.

As ground in which ditches are to be dug is not always either
wet clay or dry loam, but often ranges between the two, it may be
necessary to modify the two methods described above in the spac-
ing of bore holes and size of charges.

When shale or rock is encountered in digging ditches, holes
must be drilled and fired as in any other kind of rock blasting. The

_ depth and spacing of these holes, and the kind and quantity of
_ explosives which will give best results, depend altogether on the
_ nature of the rock.

DRAINING SWAMPS

In comparatively flat, open country underlaid by a clay sub-
soil, swamps, often several acres in extent, occupy the lower areas.
These swamps are natural reservoirs, generally formed by drainage
filling up the depressions until the water is high enough to flow out
over the lowest barrier. They are not fed by springs, but by the
natural drainage. [To drain these swamps by means of ditches
would sometimes require several miles of ditching, which in many
cases is impracticable. Yet such swamps often cover the very
best kind of crop-bearing ground, and accordingly any practical
method by which they can be disposed of, is a matter of great inter-
est to many farmers. That many of them can be completely drained
without ditching, and at very little expense, has been clearly demon-
strated. ‘This is done by boring holes down through the impervious
ground in the bottom of the swamps, to the sand, gravel or other
open material below, and exploding relatively heavy charges of 40
per cent. semi-gelatin in the holes. “The number of holes required
depends on the size of the swamps and the thickness of the subsoil.
Sometimes a comparatively large swamp can be permanently dried
up by means of three or four well-blasted holes in the lowest part of
the bottom. Again a row of holes, spaced thirty or forty feet
apart, across the lowest part of the swamp may be necessary. For
lasting results, the holes must sometimes be drilled as deep as thirty
feet, although ten-foot holes are often sufficient. A two-inch

HANDBOOK OF EXPL Oss) =

wood or dirt auger is generally used. This auger is welded to a
piece of gas-pipe six or eight feet long. ‘The top of this is threaded
and a tee attached so that a wood or pipe handle can be used to
turn the auger. When the hole is bored down until the handle
of the auger approaches the surface of the water, or as low as it
can be conveniently operated from the raft or boat, the tee is un-
screwed, another section of pipe attached, and the tee is screwed
on to the top of this section. This process is repeated until the hole
has reached the required depth. Then the dynamite is loaded. To
do this properly a section of two-inch gas-pipe should be pushed
into the hole for six or eight inches. This pipe should be long enough
to extend above the surface of the water. Through this the 114 x 8-
inch cartridges should be pushed, one or two at a time, with a
wooden stick, to the bottom of the hole, where they will remain
when the stick is withdrawn, if given a good firm push. ‘The last
cartridge should be primed with a No. 6 waterproof electric fuze,
for good results cannot be expected if fuze and blasting caps are
used in this work. The electric fuze must have wires long enough
to reach well above the surface of the water. No tamping is re-
quired, as the water above the explosive serves the purpose. After
the primer cartridge is in position, draw out the gas-pipe carefully,
so as not to pull the electric fuze out of the cartridge. ‘The electric
fuze wires should then be connected to well-insulated leading wire
(all connections being carefully waterproofed), and the leading
wire should be carefully paid out, while the raft or boat is moved
fifty to one hundred yards away. The other ends of the leading
wire should then be attached to the blasting machine, the operation
of which will explode the charge in the bottom of the hole. The
approximate charge for a hole ten feet deep is seven cartridges,
for a hole fifteen feet deep, twelve cartridges, and for a hole thirty
feet deep, twenty-five cartridges, 114 x 8 inches, of 40 per cent.
semi-gelatin.

A few years ago a Kansas farmer, who had owned a farm
for twelve years with a forty-acre swamp on it, blasted a row of
holes spaced about thirty-five feet apart, across the lowest part where
the water was three feet deep. The swamp dried up immediately
and the first year sixteen hundred bushels of oats were raised on
the ground it had occupied. Since then four crops of alfalfa per
year have been raised on this ground.

Gan PING THE. FARM- IN -SHAPE

ROAD BUILDING

No farm can be properly conducted without good, hard roads,
and the only way to have good roads about the farm is to lay them
out correctly in the first place, and then grade and ditch them
properly. This grading and ditching always takes more or less
digging, but by using dynamite to loosen up the hard ground or
shale, and to blast out the rock, roads can be built quickly and at
comparatively little expense.

To blast cuts not more than five feet deep through hard earth
or shale, drive a bar down to within six inches or a foot of “ grade,”
and in the hole thus made explode one or two cartridges of 30
per cent. dynamite. Be sure to first tamp the charge properly.
Holes should be spaced five to eight feet apart. In this way the
material to be removed is not only broken up so that it can be
shoveled very easily, but a good portion of it is spread over the
surrounding land and does not have to be handled.

Roads can be ditched with but little shoveling, by exploding
about half a cartridge of 30 per cent. dynamite in holes a foot
deep and two to three feet apart along the line of the ditch.

If it is necessary to cut through rock, the holes should be
drilled closer together and heavier charges used. When crushing
stone for country roads and turnpike, it will be found much cheaper
to locate the crusher at a ledge, and blast out the rock, than to
keep teams traveling over the whole countryside, gathering up
boulders and hauling them to the crusher.

DIGGING CELLARS AND FOUNDATION TRENCHES

No farmer wants to put an expensive barn or house on a poor
foundation, and it would be hard to find a greater benefit to a
farm than a good cellar. The proper location for a building is on a
knoll, and the rock often comes nearer to the surface on the knolls
than it does in the hollows. This makes both good foundations and
good cellars possible with the help of dynamite. With sharp drills, a
couple of sledges, 40 per cent. dynamite, fuse and No. 6 blasting
caps, a cellar can be excavated, and the rock squared up for founda-
tion piers or walls, in a short time and at little expense. In fact, it
takes little, if any, more blasting to put a house or barn on rock than
it does to quarry elsewhere the necessary stone for cellar walls and

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maaitoNG THE FARM IN SHAPE

foundations. ‘The rock blasted out can also be used for the walls
and piers.

If it is not possible to locate the house and barns on rock, then
the foundation trenches and cellar in the clay, gravel or shale can
be dug much more quickly and easily if the material is loosened up
with an occasional charge of 30 per cent. dynamite.

The stone for cement construction of all kinds can be easily
blasted out in the proper size for the crusher with 40 per cent.
dynamite.

WELL SINKING

Wells are frequently sunk through rock or ground which can-
not be dug to advantage without the aid of explosives. In well
sinking, when rock is reached and the earth or sand above is prop-
erly shored, a circle of four or five holes should be drilled about
half-way between the center and the sides of the well, pointing at
an angle, that will bring them close together near the center when
they are three or four feet deep. These holes should be loaded
about half-full of 40 per cent. gelatin dynamite, with damp clay
tamping packed firmly above this to the top of the hole, and then
fired simultaneously from the surface by electricity. ‘The result of
this shot will be to blow out an inverted cone or funnel in the center,
and the bottom can then be squared up with another circle of holes
drilled vertically as close to the walls as possible. If the well is large
it may be necessary to drill a circle of holes between the inner and
outer circle. The above process should be repeated until the well
has passed through the rock or has been sunk to the necessary depth.
Nothing weaker than No. 6 electric fuzes should be used to explode
the gelatin dynamite.

DIGGING HOLES FOR POLES AND POSTS

Much time and labor can be saved by using dynamite as an
assistant in digging holes for poles and posts. Only enough explo-
sive should be used to make the digging easy, as larger charges
loosen up the ground to such an extent that it is difficult to make
the poles or posts as firm as they should be. ‘This applies particu-
larly to large poles.

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SeortNG THE FARM IN SHAPE

The best way to do this blasting is to drive a crowbar down
into the ground within six inches of the desired depth of the hole.
In the bottom of the hole made by the crowbar, explode from one-
quarter of a cartridge to one cartridge of 40 per cent. dynamite. Do
not tamp, as this would cause the explosive to loosen the ground too
much.

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THE THIRD STAGE

PREPARING THE LAND
FOR CROPS

PLOWING WITH DYNAMITE

DYNAMITE IN THE ORCHARD

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PREPARING THE LAND FOR CROPS

PLOWING WITH DYNAMITE

| orate have been used for many centuries to break up the
surface of the earth, so that seeds could be easily planted and
grow better; but from the forked stick of the savage to the great
gang plow of the modern farmer, plows have rarely broken up the
ground satisfactorily to a depth greater than eight or ten inches.

In rich, open soil that is properly fertilized, plowing will break
up the ground sufficiently for many years, but eventually a hard
stratum, sometimes called “ plow hardpan ”’ or “ plow sole,’ forms
just below the depth to which the plow reaches. ‘This “ plow
sole’ must be broken up, or the land will begin to fail. Even when
‘plow sole” does not exist, land that has been bearing crops for
many years is wonderfully improved, if the lower soil is broken up
and aerated once in every six or eight years.

Land that has only a thin surface soil underlaid by an imper-
vious or partly impervious subsoil, sometimes known as “ hardpan,”
will not produce crops at all, or else only produce them in a very
limited degree, or for a short time only, unless the subsoil be thor-
oughly broken up. Where the fertile surface soil is fairly deep,
attempts have been made to farm this land by means of drainage
and irrigation, the surplus water of the wet season being drained
off, and the lack of water in the dry season being overcome by mri-
gation. This system is expensive, and at best gives only temporary
relief, for in the end it tends to increase the thickness of the hardpan,
and in some localities may be responsible for alkali soil. “The heavy
rains of the wet season often cannot penetrate this subsoil, so the
water rushes to the low ground, carrying much of the valuable sur-
face soil with it. There, still unable to sink through the hardpan,
it prevents plowing until the water evaporates or causes the seed to
rot if it is already in the ground.

SUBSOIL BLASTING—THE RESULT—CORN RAISED ON THE BLASTED GROUND

Peel ARING THE LAND FOR CROPS

In places where irrigating is carried on extensively, the ground
sometimes becomes so saturated that the water level rises close to
the surface. ‘This makes the land practically worthless for vegeta-
tion of any kind other than pasturage. If alkali exists in the soil,
or is deposited by irrigation, no crops can be raised when the ground
water reaches the level of the plants’ roots.

In some parts of the country, ridges or “ dikes ’’ are run at regu-
lar intervals over all of the higher ground, to keep the thin surface
soil from being washed away. Considerable time and labor is re-
quired to make these dikes, as well as to keep them in shape, and
they take up ground that should be bearing crops. On land of this
kind, drainage, irrigation, dikes, late plowing and rotting seed could
all be done away with if the subsoil or hardpan were properly
broken up.

There is only one practical way to upturn and aerate these
lower soils, or to shatter hardpan, and that is by blasting.

Subsoil and hardpan can be plowed just as effectively with
explosives as surface soil can be with a plow, and just as cheaply,
too, for it is only necessary to do this subsoil plowing once in a
number of years.

Blasting subsoil has been practiced for some years by a few
progressive farmers in different parts of the country. [hese men
have had wonderful results in the way of increased crops on land
already under cultivation, and in transforming into excellent grow-
ing land that which would have been worthless without dynamite.

It is only lately, however, that the benefits from plowing with
dynamite have become generally recognized. [he Department of
Agriculture, the various agricultural colleges, and men prominently
identified with farming in different parts of the country, are all now
making a careful study of this question in order to determine the
strength, quantity and kind of explosives, the most effective way of
using them, and the depth and spacing of the holes, for best results.
Farmers everywhere are experimenting on their own account. Many
are already claiming that subsoil plowing with explosives will be a
common custom in a few years, and will represent millions of dollars
in increased crops from lands already under cultivation, and more
millions from land now producing nothing but weeds and considered
entirely worthless. Along with this increase in land production,

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Biwe ARING THE LAND FOR CROPS

will be a reduction in the expense of draining and irrigating; be-
cause, when hard subsoils are properly shattered with explosives,
the surplus water falling in rainy seasons sinks down to the lower
soils, and does not need to be drained off. Neither is it necessary
in dry seasons to provide water by means of irrigating to keep the
crops from drying up, because the water which has settled deep in
the ground during the heavy rains is drawn up in the dry. season
by the plant roots as they need it.

Forty-nine per cent., representing about two and one-half mil-
lion bales, of the damage done to the 1909 cotton crops was due
to either excessive or insufficient moisture. ‘This loss could have
been largely prevented by blasting the subsoil so that it could absorb
the surplus water in wet weather and retain it for the dry weather,
when the plants need it.

In some places the subsoil is so close to the surface, and so hard,
that the plant roots grow down to it, but are unable to penetrate
it. Ground of this nature will not produce crops amounting to any-
thing until the subsoil has been blasted, no matter how much it 1s
drained and irrigated. After being blasted, however, it often be-
comes wonderfully productive.

Different methods of loading and spacing the holes are prac-
ticed in different places, the usual distance apart in the South being
4 to 8 feet, with a charge of about one-fourth of a 114 x 8-inch
cartridge of 30 per cent. or 40 per cent, dynamite in each hole.
In Kansas and other Western States, holes are spaced from 15 to
30 feet apart and loaded with a charge of from one to one and a
half 114 x 8-inch cartridges of 15 per cent. or 25 per cent. dynamite,
in each hole. The proper place to locate the charge so that it will
shatter a maximum area of subsoil, is two to three feet below the
surface, if the hardpan is thin, and the holes are placed four to eight
feet apart. In thick hardpan, with the holes 15 to 30 feet apart,
the charge should be located about six inches above the bottom of
the hardpan.

In California, hardpan has been blasted very effectively and
cheaply with 5 per cent. low powder. A slow-acting dynamite
does better work than a quick one, because its effect is more spread-
ing. The difference in the results of the use of slow explosives and
of quick ones on hardpan is illustrated on pages 66, 68 and 70.

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ei ARING THE LAND FOR CROPS

The exact size of the charge, the proper spacing of the holes,
and their depth, depend largely on the kind of subsoil to be broken,
its thickness and distance below the surface.

When the bore holes are 15 feet or more apart, it is best to
explode a number of charges simultaneously by means of electricity,
but when the bore holes are closer it answers the purpose about as
well to explode the charges with fuse and blasting caps.

Some years ago F. G. Moughon, of Walton County, Georgia,
blasted a piece of land with charges of about one-third of a 114 x 8-
inch cartridge of dynamite in bore holes, two and a half to three
feet deep, spaced eight and ten feet apart. This ground has pro-
duced since then phenomenal crops of watermelons, averaging 50
to 60 pounds each. J. H. Caldwell, of Spartanburg, S. C., ad-
vocates holes two feet deep spaced four feet apart. He explodes in
each of these about one-fourth of a 11/4 x 8-inch cartridge of 30
per cent. dynamite. These holes are not thoroughly tamped, but
when they are loaded enough loose dirt is pushed into each one to
close up the opening and hold the fuse upright. Although this
lack of tamping undoubtedly results in wasting some of the force
of the dynamite, Mr. Caldwell believes that it is cheaper in the end,
because of the saving of time in loading the holes. When the ground
was not blasted, the corn had to be planted 18 inches apart in the
row, with rows 4 feet apart. [he blasted ground was able to nour-
ish stalks six inches apart, with the rows spaced as before. The corn
on the blasted ground grew almost one-half taller than that on the
unblasted ground and produced a crop 33 per cent. greater. This
comm was weighed by a committee of the Chamber of Commerce,
of Spartanburg, S. C., and report made to Col. E. J. Watson,
United States Commissioner of Agriculture, of Columbia, S. C.
The committee also stated that the blasted ground produced fuller
ears and firmer grains.

It is impossible, in the limited space of this handbook, to give
details concerning the results of the subsoil blasting done by many
of those who have profited greatly by it, but J. T. Garrett, of
Laurens, N. C., who greatly improved his corn and watermelon
yield, and M. T. Williams, of Medicine Lodge, Kan., who in-
creased the value of his land almost tenfold for alfalfa, must be men-
tioned.

ERE PARING THE LAND FOR CROPS

The entire cost, including labor and explosives, of blasting an
acre of ground with holes 3 feet deep and 15 feet apart, using a
half-cartridge 11/4 x 8 inches in each hole amounts to about $18.
The same charge in holes spaced 20 feet apart brings the cost per
acre down to about $11. If charges of one cartridge be used in
holes 20 feet apart, the entire cost will be about $15 per acre.

In many parts of California and some of the other Western
States true hardpan exists. The only way in which land underlaid
by this hardpan can be made worth anything, is to break up the
hardpan with explosives. ‘Then fruit trees will grow and bear just
as well as anywhere else.

Tools Used When Blasting Subsoil

In the South the holes in which the dynamite is exploded are
‘made by driving into the ground with sledges a steel bar, two and
a half to three feet long, and a little larger in diameter than the dyna-
mite cartridges. ‘This bar has either a flange or a lug near the top,
so that after it has been driven down it can be loosened with a
crowbar. The bar should have a short point, for a long, tapered
point would make a hole so small at the bottom that the dynamite
cartridge would lodge part way down. Aan illustration of this bar
will be found on page 51.

In Kansas the holes are usually bored with a 2-inch dirt or
wood auger having a long shank, as the bottom of the hardpan
there is often several feet below the surface. A crowbar to drive
stones out of the course of the auger is also useful.

If you have not tried blasting subsoil, or “ plowing with dyna-
mite,” we suggest that you lay off an acre, or else a plot 100 feet
by 200 feet in one of your fields, and blast it as described above.
_ Plant the whole field and note how much better and heavier the
crop is on the blasted ground. An experiment of this kind will cost
but little, and should be the means of greatly increasing your income
in the future.

DYNAMITE IN THE ORCHARD

Dynamite is an exceedingly valuable aid to the successful grow-
ing of fruit trees. "Those who have tried it are firmly convinced that
no method of excavating the hole for the roots of the young tree,
whatever may be the soil conditions, is so economical, quick or pro-
ductive of as desirable after-results, as blasting with dynamite.

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Dynamite should be used when planting trees, because one
cartridge of 30 per cent. dynamite will excavate instantly the hole
in which to plant the tree, and because the explosion of the dynamite
loosens up the soil for many yards around, giving the tree roots a
better opportunity to spread out than when the hole is dug by hand.
The explosion also destroys all insects and grubs in the ground
nearby. Every year or so during the life of the trees, small charges
of 30 per cent. dynamite should be exploded midway between them,
and some four or five feet below the surface of the ground. This
tends to keep the soil open so that it will hold moisture and gives
the tree roots every chance to spread, besides keeping the ground
free from grubs.

When older trees begin to fail, it is sometimes of much benefit
to detonate a charge of explosives directly under them. To do this
a hole should be started seven or eight feet away from the tree
and driven downward and toward the tree on a dip of about forty-
five degrees. When the hole is in twelve feet, the bottom will be
from eight to nine feet directly under the trunk of the tree. This
hole should be “ sprung,” or “‘ chambered,” with a 114 x 8-inch
cartridge of 40 per cent. dynamite, and then loaded with from 5 to
10 pounds of low powder, with tamping above the charge to the
mouth of the hole. The explosion of this charge breaks up the hard
soil below the roots of the tree, so that it can hold a greater quantity
of moisture, which the tree roots will take up as they require it. The
beneficial results from this blasting may not appear in the next crop,
but will be manifest in succeeding ones for many years.

When breaking up hardpan between the trees in the California
orange groves, it is the custom te bore down with an auger just
through the hardpan—usually about four feet below the surface.
This hole is ‘‘ sprung ”’ or “ chambered ”’ with one-half of a 11% x 8-
inch cartridge of stumping powder (10 per cent.), and then, after
being loaded with about one and a half pounds of low powder, and
well tamped, is blasted.

If the soil is inclined to be swampy, heavier charges, exploded
deeper in the ground, will break up the lower impervious stratum,
and permit the surplus water to sink into the earth, where it will be
conserved, and afterwards given up to the roots of the trees as they
require it.

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An example of the great benefit derived from the use of ex-
plosives, for excavating the holes in which young trees are to be
planted, was recently brought to our attention by a well-known fruit
grower, who reported that he planted nine peach trees a few years
ago to determine positively whether anything was to be gained by
using dynamite. ‘Three of the trees were planted in holes made by
drilling a two-inch auger hole three to four feet deep, and exploding
a charge of dynamite in the bottom; the other six trees were planted
in holes of the regulation size dug by hand. Three years later the
three trees which had been planted in the blasted holes were strong
and healthy, and produced between five and six bushels of very fine
peaches; but the other six trees, planted on the same ground without
blasting, bore practically no peaches at all, both fruit and leaves
having shrivelled up and dropped off during the dry season.

A similar experience was that of a Western farmer, who set
out an apple orchard more than twenty years ago. After digging a
number of holes for the young trees, he decided that life was too
short for such slow methods, and drove to town, where he bought
a case of dynamite, some blasting caps and fuse from the hardware
dealer. With this he blasted holes for the remaining trees, and to-
day, twenty years later, he reports that the trees planted in the blasted
holes are superior in every way to the others, and that they have
produced better fruit and more of it, ever since they began bearing.

One successful Missouri fruit grower states that he would never
think of replanting where a tree had died out, without blasting the
hole for the new tree with dynamite. ‘The new trees then are not so
likely to be attacked by wet rot and other diseases, and are markedly
better than those planted in holes which are not blasted.

So many other similar cases have been brought to our atten-
tion that we feel every fruit grower shou!d give the question of using
explosives careful and thorough consideration.

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A DIFFICULT PROBLEM

Although the tree had been cut from this stump for many years
the stump was still comparatively solid

THE LAST STAGE

KEEPING UP THE FARM
BREAKING UP ICE GORGES
STARTING LOG JAMS

BREAKING UP LOG ROLLWAYS

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KEEPING UP THE FARM

Ao a farm has been properly laid out and drained, with
all buildings erected, roads graded and fences up; when
wells have been driven, fruit trees planted and subsoil blasted,
there is still work to be done year by year, and in much of this work
the use of dynamite means a great saving of time and money. Its
use for blasting up subsoil in land that is deteriorating, for blasting
under and between failing fruit trees, and for cleaning up occasional
stumps and boulders overlooked in the first clearing, has already
been referred to. It is also necessary for keeping roads and ditches
in shape, and is indispensable in those parts of the country where ice
may form gorges in the streams in the early spring. Unless these
gorges are promptly broken, great damage may be caused by the
water backing up behind them, sometimes overflowing farms and
towns, and carrying away buildings and bridges.
Dynamite is also of great service in starting log jams, breaking
up “ rollways,” etc., in the districts where timbering is carried on.

BLASTING ICE

Ice in streams sometimes forms jams or gorges 10 to 40 feet
high. When water backs up behind these, bridges may be carried
away and other great damage and loss to the community result. All
of this can be prevented at a small expense by the use of dynamite.

To break up floating ice so that a gorge will not be formed,
charges of dynamite should be exploded on the surface of the ice,
the size of the charge depending on the thickness of the ice. If the
floating ice is in large sections, the work of blasting should be con-
ducted on a broad, slow-running part of the stream, where it is
possible to get on to the ice either directly from the shore or in boats.
Successive charges, consisting of a number of cartridges of 40 per
cent. dynamite, tied together in a bundle, should be laid on the ice

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and exploded with fuse and blasting cap, until the ice is properly
broken. When the streams are narrow, the charges of explosives
may be thrown on to the ice from the shores or, if the ice is running
swiftly, the charges may be dropped on to the cakes from the down-
stream side of bridges. ‘The charge to be thrown on the floating ice
should be prepared by tying securely together in a bundle the re-
quired number of cartridges, the cartridge in the middle of the bundle
having been primed with a blasting cap and waterproof fuse. The
place where the fuse enters the blasting cap should be well coated
with soap or thick grease to keep water from getting into the blasting
cap and damaging it. A block of wood, a stone, or some other
object that would prevent its rolling should then be tied to the charge,
which, after the fuse is lighted, should be thrown or dropped as
nearly as possible on to the middle of the ice cake. Particular atten-
tion must be given in this operation to the length of the fuse. Fuse
generally burns from two to three feet per minute, and when the
fuse is lighted, with the dynamite still in the hands of the operator,
extra time for possible emergencies should be allowed.

To blast out ice gorges the charge, usually of from 5 to 25
pounds of 40 per cent. dynamite, should be pressed into a hollow
or crevice at what appears to be the weakest part of the gorge. ‘This
charge should be exploded from a distance by electricity, so that the
operator can be on shore when the explosion takes place and the
gorge moves out. If the first shot does not start the gorge, the pro-
cess should be repeated until it is broken. ‘To open great ice gorges,
such as the one that formed in the Niagara River in April, 1909,
much larger charges are necessary. In one blast on this work a
charge of 2500 pounds of dynamite was exploded.

Watering places for stock along the banks of streams can be
easily kept free from ice in winter by the use of a little dynamite
from time to time.

Since ice blasting is always done in cold weather, it is necessary
to give particular attention to having the dynamite thoroughly
thawed. If this is not done, poor results will follow.

HANDBOOK (OF. EB xeP lO sii eae

“STARTING” LOG JAMS

Forty per cent. semi-gelatin is invaluable for breaking log jams.
A charge exploded on a log, above or below water, will cut it in
two as readily as can be done with an axe, with the advantage of
the operator being at a safe distance when the jam “starts.”

BREAKING UP “ROLLWAYS”

Forty per cent. dynamite can be used to great advantage in
breaking up “‘rollways’’ of logs, large quantities of this powerful
explosive being used each season by the lumbermen. A case of
this explosive, thawed in the morning, will, if covered by an old coat
or blanket and protected from the cold, be ready for use at any time
during that day. The huge piles of logs, frozen and bound together
with snow and ice, can be instantly loosened with a little dynamite
instead of prying them apart slowly and laboriously with cant hooks
and levers. At a season when time is truly money, the dynamite
used in this way saves many times its cost. The cases of dynamite
can be transported easily and safely if properly handled. No log-
ging camp can afford to be without it a single day when engaged in
this work.

EXPLOSIVES AND
BLASTING SUPPLIES

HOW TO HANDLE, STORE
AND USE THEM

BLASTING BY ELECTRICITY

DEMONSTRATOR SHOWING HOW TO PRIME A DYNAMITE CARTRIDGE FOR HARDPAN BLASTING

PRINCIPLE OF EXPLOSIVES

Eee ITI Explosives are divided into two general classes,
known as high explosives and low explosives; dynamite and

low powder are examples of the former, and blasting powder
of the latter. They are solids, having bound up in themselves very
powerful energy, which, when properly directed, can be made to
do an enormous amount of valuable work. To get them to do this
work economically, they must be closely confined in the midst of
the material which is to be broken or thrown out, and then exploded;
that is, instantly changed from a small volume of a solid to a very
large volume of a gas. Low explosives (blasting powder) will do
but little, if any work, if not tightly confined or corked up when
exploded, but high explosives change from a solid to a gas so quickly
that they will jar and break material on which they are lying when
they explode, even though they are confined very little, as in “* mud-
capping” or © blistering ”’ boulders, or if not confined at all, as when
floating ice is blasted.

Low explosives are exploded by a spark, but a spark will not
explode high explosives, although it may ignite them, and the heat
and pressure caused by burning in a confined space may result in
an explosion after a time.

High explosives can only be properly exploded by a very
powerful shock. This shock is brought about in their use by ex-
ploding a detonator, which has been inserted in the charge of ex-
plosives. This detonator is either a blasting cap, which is exploded
by a spark from the fuse, or an electric fuze (pronounced fu-zee)
which is exploded by a fine wire, superheated by an electric current.

When fuse and blasting caps are used it is necessary for the
blaster to cut the necessary length of fuse from a roll, and fasten
the blasting cap to the freshly cut end of the fuse with a cap crimper.
The electric fuze is furnished with the two wires sealed into it.

Blasting powder is exploded by the spark from fuse or an electric
squib, no detonator being required.

HANDBOOK (OF )EXCP DOs ee

The Detonator

When “high explosives’ were first manufactured, they were
not as safe to handle or use as the properly made ones now are.
Consequently they could be exploded with a small and weak de-
tonator. The standard explosives now manufactured cannot be
completely exploded, and give best results, if anything weaker than
a No. 6 detonator is used with them. Nevertheless, many dealers
will sell to inexperienced consumers No. 3 or No. 4 detonators,
simply because the price is a little lower than that of stronger ones.
This they do regardless of the fact that the reduction in price 1s
much more than offset by the loss of power due to the incomplete
detonation of the explosives with which these weak detonators are
used.

Storage

Explosives should be stored in a dry, well-ventilated place, not
warmer than 80 or 90 degrees Fahrenheit. They should always
be kept under lock and key, so that children or irresponsible people
will not have access to them, and should not be stored in a locality
where hunting or other shooting may be done, unless they are kept
in a bullet-proof building.

Most high explosives freeze at a temperature between 45 and
50 degrees Fahrenheit, and when frozen, will explode either only
imperfectly or not at all. Frozen dynamite should therefore never
be used under any circumstances.

Packages and Transportation

High explosives are put up in cartridges, generally 114 x 8-
inch, and then packed with sawdust in wooden cases. They can,
when thus packed, be shipped on freight trains or carried in wagons,
with but little danger of explosion. “There have been instances where
they have been dropped, and the cases smashed, without an ex-
plosion resulting, showing that these high explosives stand very rough
treatment; still, it should never be forgotten that they are explosives,
and we would particularly direct the reader’s attention to pages 99 to
101 of this handbook, where stress has been laid on ““ What Not to

Do.” If these instructions are observed, the user need have no fear
of an accidental explosion.

EXCPLEOSIVES AND: BLASTING: SUPPLIES

Thawing

There are various ways of thawing high explosives, but the
only safe methods are those which thaw slowly and gradually.

Burying dynamite in water-tight boxes in manure Is a safe and
fairly effective way to thaw it, provided the manure is fresh.

and eR
The safest and best way is in a “ thawing kettle.” A thawing
kettle is a double-galvanized iron bucket, having an outside space
for hot water and an inner water-tight receptacle for the dynamite.
Some thawing kettles are made in one piece, while others are in

effect two pails, the outer one for hot water and the inner one for
the dynamite. (See illustrations. )

THAWING KETTLE

Never thaw dynamite by putting it near a fire, nor in the oven,
nor against a stove or steam pipe. Do not try to thaw dynamite
by exposing it to steam, nor by soaking it in hot water.

It is not at all necessary that the cartridges should feel warm.
All that is necessary is to have them soft all the way through.

TAKING OUT CAP

“CUTTING FUSE

MAKING HOLE IN Top
OF CARTRIDGE

INSERTING
FUSE AND CAP IN
CARTRIDGE

FOLDING TYING CARTRIDGE
CARTRIDGE PAPER t aie

AROUND Case PAPER AROUND FUSE

ONE METHOD OF MAKING A PRIMER WITH BLASTING CAP AND FUSE

EXPLOSIVES AND 2 BLAS HING VSUPPLIES

Every user of dynamite who has occasion to thaw it should
make it a rule never to heat water in the thawing kettle, but in some
other receptacle, and then, after removing the dynamite, pour the
hot water into the water compartment. This water should not be
so hot that it would burn the hand. Water may be heated in the
outer pail of two-piece thawing kettles, provided the inner pail has
been removed; but it is never safe to put a one-piece thawing kettle
over a fire, even after the dynamite has been removed, because
enough nitroglycerin may have leaked out from dynamite previously
thawed, to cause an explosion if the thawing kettle is put over a fire.

ei
—e i

THAWING KETTLE

A simple and effective thawing arrangement may be made by
suspending a small pail or bucket containmg the dynamite in a
larger bucket partly filled with warm water. Care must be taken
to prevent any of the water from getting into the inner pail, which

should have a tight-fitting lid. The whole should be covered with
a piece of carpet, or an old coat, until the dynamite has thawed.
Priming

Placing the detonator in a cartridge or charge of high ex-
plosives is called priming it, and the cartridge or part of a cartridge
with the detonator in it is called the “ primer” or “ primer cart-
ridge.”

The first step in the preparation of the primer is to cut the
necessary length of fuse from the roll, cutting it squarely across and
not diagonally. After carefully inserting the fresh-cut end as far as
it will go into the blasting cap, fasten the latter securely to the fuse
with a cap crimper. When crimping the blasting cap to the fuse,
the crimp should be made near the end which the fuse enters, so as
not to disturb in any way the explosive which the blasting cap con-

TAKING OUT CAP

PLACING CAP ON FUSE CRIMPING

INSERTING
FUSE AND CAP IN SIDE
OF CARTRIDGE
MAKING HOLE IN
SIDE OF CARTRIDGE

TYING FUSE
TO CARTRIDGE

ANOTHER METHOD OF MAKING A PRIMER WITH BLASTING CAP AND FUSE

EXPLOSIVES AND SS BEASPING SUPPEIES

tains. An attempt to crimp the blasting cap near the other end would
be likely to cause it to explode. The crimp should be made secure
enough to prevent the fuse from pulling out of the blasting cap during
the charging and tamping of the bore hole, and, what is quite as im-
portant, particularly in wet work, the crimp should be tight enough
to keep water out of the blasting cap. A coating of soap, tallow or
thick grease, spread over the fuse where it enters the blasting cap,
will help greatly to keep the water out. This grease should not be
applied until after the blasting cap has been crimped to the fuse.
Oil should not be used for this purpose, as it may soak into the fuse
and damage it.

Be sure to cut the fuse long enough to allow it to extend several
inches from the mouth of the bore hole when the primer is in place,
and also long enough for the blaster to reach a place of safety before
the charge explodes. Fuse burns from two to three feet per minute.

To prime a dynamite, or other high explosive, cartridge with
blasting cap and fuse, make a hole in the end of the cartridge after un-
folding the paper shell, or in the side of the cartridge near one end,
with a small pointed stick, about the diameter of a lead pencil. This
hole should not be much larger in diameter than the blasting cap,
for an air space around it always detracts from the force with which
a blasting cap shoots into the explosive. The blasting cap should
not be so deep in the cartridge that the fuse will come in contact
with the explosive for any appreciable distance, as side spitting of
the fuse usually ignites the explosive.

Best results will be had if the blasting cap is pointed straight
down into the primer cartridge.

When the blasting cap has been put in the end of the cartridge,
the paper must be folded carefully about the fuse, and tied securely
with a piece of string. When the blasting cap is inserted in the side
of the cartridge near the end, the fuse is held in position by tying it
with a double loop of string around the cartridge. Both of these
methods of priming are clearly shown in the illustrations on pages

88 and 90.
Charging

Having primed the cartridge in the manner described, insert
it in the bore hole and push it carefully home. It is sometimes well
in dry ground to slit the paper shells lengthwise before putting the

HANDBOOK? (OR 22 aP i072). ae

cartridges into the bore hole. Push them firmly into place, so that
they will fill up the diameter of the hole, for crevices or air spaces
greatly lessen the power of an explosive. If more than one cartridge
is used in a charge, it is only necessary to prime the top or outside
one, but in the bore hole each cartridge must touch the one pre-
viously loaded. If any space between the cartridges occurs through
falling dirt or stones, or through the sticking of a cartridge in the
bore hole, a partial misfire may result.

Tamping

After the charge is pressed home, as directed, put in two or
three inches of fine dirt or sand, and tamp (pack) lightly. Then
fill up two or three inches more of the hole with tamping material,
packing it in a little more firmly. After five or six inches of tamping
covers the charge, the tamping may be pressed firmly into place
without danger of premature explosion. The tamping material
should be packed as firmly on top of the charge as can be done
without moving the electric fuze or blasting cap and fuse in the
primer, but it is not safe to tamp by a blow any stronger than can
be given by hand. Fill the bore hole up with tamping until even
with the surface. The firmer and harder the tamping can be made
(without overlooking the above precautions) the better will be the
results. If the bore hole is not properly tamped, the charge is likely
to “* blow out,”’ or at any rate some of its force will be wasted.

Be sure the tamping is done with a wooden stick. Never use
a metal bar or anything having metal parts.

NOTE

Always be careful, when using dynamite, not to taste it nor
get it on the hands, for the smallest quantity will nearly always cause
a violent headache. It is an excellent plan to wear a pair of old
gloves, which should be destroyed before they become saturated with
the nitro-glycerin in the dynamite. With a little care, a great deal

* dynamite can be handled before it is necessary to destroy the
gloves.

EXPLOSIVES AND BEAS TING? SUPPLIES

BLASTING SUPPLIES

When detonating high explosives with fuse and blasting caps,
the only supplies necessary besides the fuse and blasting caps, and
the tools for making the hole and for tamping, are the cap crimper
and the thawing kettle. The latter has been described under the
paragraph on “ Thawing,” page 87.

When the blasting is done by electricity, a blasting machine,
coil of leading wire and electric fuzes take the place of fuse and
blasting caps. A spool of connecting wire and roll of insulating tape
should also be provided. A leading wire reel is not a necessity, but
saves time and keeps the leading wire in good condition.

Fuse
Fuse is made in several different grades, put up in double coils,
consisting of two single coils of 50 feet each, and packed in cases
containing from 500 to 6000 feet. In wet work, “* double-tape ”
or “ triple-tape ’’ fuse should be used, while “ single-tape ”’ or “ cot-

Cite"

COIL OF FUSE

ton’ will answer in dry work. Fuse should be stored in a cool,
dry place to keep it from hardening so that it will break when it is
unrolled, or from getting soft and defective. In cold weather fuse
becomes stiff and must be unrolled very carefully to keep it from
breaking. Most fuse burns from two to three feet per minute.

Blasting Caps

Blasting caps are small copper cylinders closed at one end,
which contain a sensitive and highly explosive compound. ‘They
must always be handled carefully, kept away from heat or sparks,
and must not be subjected to heavy knocks or jars. [hey should
never be carried loose in the pocket, nor permitted to lie about where
children may find them. ‘They are very dangerous in the hands of
a child or irresponsible person. ‘They should never be stored or

HANDBOOK: OF ;EXPLOSsiy aa.

carried with dynamite, because they are more easily exploded by
accident than is dynamite, and if they explode in close proximity
to dynamite they will probably cause it to explode also, and do great
damage. If blasting caps are to do good work, they must be stored
in a perfectly dry place, and must not be permitted to lie in a damp
place for even a short time before using. The charge which they
contain is very quickly damaged by moisture, and, although it may
explode when damp, it explodes with so little force that it may not
detonate the charge of dynamite, or may only partly detonate it.

No. 6 BLASTING CAP

Blasting caps are put up in tin boxes, containing 100 each.
These boxes are then packed in wooden cases, containing from 500
to 5000 blasting caps. They are manufactured and sold in six
sizes—No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8, but nothing
weaker than the No. 6 can be depended on to develop the full
strength of the explosive.

Cap Crimpers
A cap crimper is inexpensive, and absolutely necessary if the
blasting cap is to be properly fastened to the fuse. Fastening blast-
ing caps to fuse with a knife or with the teeth is exceedingly dan-
gerous and inefiicient.

BLASTING BY ELECTRICITY

When a good deal of blasting is to be done, it is usual to set
off the blast by means of a blasting machine and electric fuzes. In
this way any number of charges, from one up to forty or more, can
be fired simultaneously. This is found very convenient when it is
necessary to get rid of a large stump or an extra big boulder, as
frequently several charges fired at the same time will do more work
than the same charges fired successively, or than one charge as big
as all of the smaller ones combined.

A very little thought will show that more work will be done
when firing a number of blasts simultaneously than when firmg them
singly, while a little experience will teach that much is to be gained

EXPLOSIVES AND= BLASTING -~suUPPEITES

by firing even single shots electrically. Another advantage gained
in firing by electricity is, that in case of a misfire (which can rarely
happen by this method), it is unnecessary to wait a considerable time
before returning to the work, as must be done when using fuse.

Directions

Use electric fuzes, leading and connecting wire, and blasting
machine, instead of fuse and blasting caps. ‘The electric fuze wires
must be long enough to extend several inches out of the bore hole,
and care must be taken when tamping not to break these wires or
damage the insulation on them. If more than one charge is to be

METHOD OF CONNECTING TWO LEADING WIRES TO A THREE-POST BLASTING MACHINE

fired at one time, separate the two electric fuze wires extending
from each hole and connect one of these wires to one extending from
the hole on one side, and the other one to one of the wires extending
from the hole on the other side, and so on, until all are connected
together in a string, with one free wire extending from the first hole,
and another extending from the last hole. If the electric fuze wires
are not long enough to reach each other, use a piece of connecting
wire to join them.

Be sure that all. wire ends are scraped clean and bright before
they are connected together.

The charges having all been connected as directed above, the
free wire of the first hole should be joined to one of the “ leading ”
wires, and the free wire of the last hole to the other leading wire.

HANDBOOK OF cEXP EOS.

The leading wires should be long enough to reach a point at a safe
distance from the blast—say 250 feet, at least.

All being ready, and not until everybody is at a safe distance,
connect the leading wires to the binding posts on the top of the
blasting machine, through each of which a hole is bored for the pur-
pose, and bring the wing nuts down firmly upon the wires.

Now to fire: If using a push-down blasting machine, take hold
of the handle, lift the rack bar (square rod toothed upon one side)
to its full height and push it down with all force, bringing it to the
bottom of the box with a solid thud and the blast will be made.

METHOD OF CONNECTING THREE LEADING WIRES TO A THREE-POST BLASTING MACHINE

The Blasting Machine

The ‘‘ push-down ”’ blasting machine is made in three sizes:
No. 2, which will fire up to 20 electric fuzes at one time; No. 3,
which will fire up to 30 electric fuzes at one time; and No. 4, which
will fire up to 50 electric fuzes at one time. The No. 3 size is made
with three posts, when so ordered. without extra cost, and the No. 4
size 1s always made with three posts. The rated capacity of a three-
post blasting machine is increased about 50 per cent. when three
leading wires are used.

Blasting machines with three posts can be used with either two
or three leading wires. When used with two leading wires, one
wire is connected to the middle post and the other to either one of
the outside posts. When used with three leading wires, those from

EXPLOSIVES AND BLASTING’ SUPPLIES

the two outside posts are connected to the electric fuzes on the ends
of the circuit, and that from the middle post is connected to the
electric fuze wire, or the connecting wire, somewhere near the middle
of the circuit.
Leading Wire

At least 250 feet double of leading wire should be provided,
so that the blaster will be out of danger when he fires the shot. If
the blast is a large one, it will probably be necessary for the blaster

COIL OF LEADING WIRE

to be 300 or even 500 feet away. Leading wire is sold in 250-feet,
300-feet and 500-feet coils.
It is sold by the pound, and weighs about two pounds to the

hundred feet.

Connecting Wire

Connecting wire is used to connect electric fuze wires in adjoin-
ing bore holes when the wires are not long enough to reach each

mim ——

SPOOL OF CONNECTING WIRE

other. It is wound on spools holding one pound or two pounds, and

is sold by the pound.
Electric Fuzes

The electric fuze is a blasting cap having two insulated copper
wires fastened into it with a composition plug. ‘These wires are

PAND BOO K OOF VEU? Oye ae

joined together in the cap by a very fine and delicate wire, which
rough handling may break and make the electric fuze worthless.
The charge which they contain is just as sensitive to shock, and just
as easily affected by moisture, as that of the blasting cap; so the same

ELECTRIC FUZE

rules for storing and handling must be observed. Electric fuzes are
put up 25 or 50 in pasteboard cartons, which are packed for shipment
in wooden cases. [hey are made in four grades, numbered 4, 6, 7
and 8, and with wires from 4 feet to 30 feet long. ‘The strength of
electric fuzes is exactly the same as that of blasting caps bearing the
same number, and nothing weaker than the No. 6 grade can be de-
pended on for best results from high explosives.

TO PRIME A CARTRIDGE WITH AN ELECTRIC FUZE

The correct way to prime a high explosive cartridge with an
electric fuze is to follow the same methods as when fuse and blast-
ing cap are used. (See pages 88 and 90.)

The common custom of taking one or more loops, or half-
hitches, around the cartridge with the wires themselves, after inserting
the electric fuze cap in a hole made diagonally in the side of the
cartridge near one end, is always to be condemned. ‘The principal
objection is that the looping of the wires is very likely to break the
insulation, causing short circuits, or leakage of electric current in
wet work. Sometimes even the wires themselves are broken.

Ordering

If there is an uncertainty as to what grade of explosive should
be ordered for any work, a letter, addressed to the nearest office of
some responsible dynamite manufacturer, telling just what work is
to be done, will have careful attention.

If the work to be done warrants it, the manufacturers will send
to any part of the world, at their own expense, a competent man to
explain the use of explosives.

EXPLOSIVES AND BLASTING- SUPPLIES

Precautions to be Observed in General with

Regard to Explosives

DON’T forget the nature of explosives, but remember that with
proper care they can be handled with comparative safety.

DON'T smoke while you are handling explosives, and DON’T

handle explosives near an open light.

DON’T shoot into explosives with a rifle or pistol either in or out
of a magazine.

DON’T leave explosives in a field or any place where stock can
get at them. Cattle like the taste of the soda and salt-
petre in explosives, but the other ingredients would prob-
ably make them sick or kill them.

DON’T handle or store explosives in or near a residence.

DON’T leave explosives in a wet or damp place. ‘They should
be kept in a suitable, dry place, under lock and key, and
where children or irresponsible persons cannot get at them.

DON’T explode a charge to chamber a bore hole and then im-
mediately reload it, as the bore hole will be hot and the
second charge may explode prematurely.

DON’T do tamping with iron or steel bars or tools. Use only a
wooden tamping stick, with no metal parts.

DON’T force a primer into a bore hole.

DON’T explode a charge before every one is well beyond the dan-
ger zone and protected from flying debris. Protect your
supply of explosives also from danger from this source.

DON’T hurry in seeking an explanation for the failure of a charge
to explode.

DON’T drill, bore or pick out a charge which has failed to ex-
plode. Drill and charge another bore hole at least two
feet from the missed one.

HANDBOOK OF GEXP EO sae

DON’T

DON’T
DONT

DON’T

DONT

DON’T

DON'T

DONA

DON’T

DONTE

use two kinds of explosives in the same bore hole, except
where one is used as a primer to detonate the other, as
where dynamite is used to detonate low powder. The
quicker explosive may open cracks in the rock and allow
the slower to blow out through these cracks, doing little
or no work.

use frozen or chilled explosives.

use any arrangement for thawing dynamite other than one
of those recommended by the dynamite manufacturers.

thaw dynamite on heated stoves, rocks, bricks or metal,
or in an oven, and don’t thaw dynamite in front of, near
or over a steam boiler or fire of any kind.

take dynamite into or near a blacksmith shop or near a
forge on open work.

put dynamite on shelves or anything else directly over
steam or hot water pipes or other heated metal surface.

cut or break a dynamite cartridge while it is frozen, and
don’t rub a cartridge of dynamite in the hands to complete
thawing.

heat a thawing house with pipes containing steam under
pressure.

place a hot water thawer over a fire, and never put dyna-
mite into hot water or allow it to come in contact with
steam.

allow thawed dynamite to remain exposed to low tem-
perature before using it. If it freezes again before it 1s
used, it must be thawed again.

allow priming (the placing of a blasting cap or electric fuze
in dynamite) to be done in a thawing house or magazine.

prime dynamite cartridges, or charge or connect the bore
holes for electric firing, during the immediate approach
or progress of a thunderstorm.

100

BAPEOSIVES: AND’ BLASTING] SUPPLIES

DON’T carry blasting caps or electric fuzes in your pocket.
DON’T tap or otherwise investigate a blasting cap or electric fuze.

DON’T attempt to take blasting caps from the box by inserting a
wire, nail or other sharp instrument.

DON’T try to withdraw the wires from an electric fuze.

DON’T fasten a blasting cap to the fuze with the teeth or by flat-
tening it with a knife—use a cap crimper.

DON’T keep electric fuzes, blasting machines or blasting caps in
a damp place.

DON’T attempt to use electric fuzes with the regular insulation in
very wet work. For this purpose secure those which are
waterproof.

DON’T worry along with old, broken leading wire or connecting
wire. A new supply won't cost much and will pay for
itself many times over.

DON’T handle fuse carelessly in cold weather, for when cold it
is stiff and breaks easily.

DON’T store or transport blasting caps or electric fuzes with high
explosives.

DON’T store fuse in a hot place, as this may dry it out so that
uncoiling will break it.

DON’T “lace” fuze through dynamite cartridges. ‘This practice
is frequently responsible for the burning of the charge.

DON’T operate blasting machines half-heartedly. “They are built
to be operated with full force. “They must be kept clean
and dry.

DON’T cut the fuse short to save time. It is dangerous economy.

DON’T expect a cheap article to give as good results as a high-
grade one.

DON’T expect explosives to do good work if you try to explode
them with a detonator weaker than a No. 6.

101

ALVLS MHOA MAN NI ONILSV1E dWNLS ONILVHLSNOWSO

THE NEW YORK CENTRAL
RAILROAD’S AID TO
FARMERS

The New York Central Railroad’s

Aid to Farmers

OR a considerable period, interest in the industrial field and its
opportunities attracted all the attention of the railroad, and,
while every effort was made to further industrial enterprises,

very little was attempted in the way of advancing farming interests.

Recently, however, the NEW YORK CENTRAL RAIL-
ROAD’S interest in agriculture has assumed an active form. The
railroad realizes that inasmuch as extension into new territory is
limited, any increase of trafic must come through a development of
the resources in the country it already serves. [he farm and its possi-
bilities offers the most apparent opportunity for such development,
while national interest in scientific agriculture and the receptive atti-
tude of the farmers themselves make it the best opportunity.

The farmer’s interests and the railroad’s business are very closely
connected. An increase in the farm products will mean more pros-
perous and better living conditions for the farmer, and more freight
for the railroad in carrying these products to market.

This increase in crop yields can only be secured by better farm-
ing, which means the employment of modern methods and the dis-
carding of the old, wasteful ones. Farmers must be given an oppor-
tunity to learn what these new methods are and how they can success-
fully adopt them.

With the idea of disseminating this knowledge, and bettering the
condition of the farmers throughout the territory which it serves in
New York State, the NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD

is working along a number of different lines.

104

THE N.Y. CENTRAL RAILROAD’S AID TO FARMERS

Practical Farms

Not only must the farmers be given an opportunity to learn of the
new ideas and methods of farming, but they must also be shown that
these ideas are practical and successful.

To do this, te NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD
has purchased two farms, located at West Bergen, Genesee County,
and Chittenango, Madison County, respectively. Both of these
farms had the reputation of being “ run down ”’ and were selected on
this account. A practical farmer has been placed in charge, and the
farms are to be used to demonstrate that it is possible to restore neg-
lected farms to a fertile condition and to greatly increase the produc-
tion per acre by the use of careful seed selection, proper tillage and
intelligent methods of management.

In this manner the railroad is endeavoring to show what methods
are desirable and how they may be successfully employed.

The Farm Bureau

The NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD has also es-
tablished a Farm Bureau, which is conducting an extensive campaign
to improve agricultural conditions and assist the farmers.

Realizing the value of intensive farming, and that one reason
why the acreage production in New York State is not greater is that
in many sections farms are too large and there are not enough farmers
to operate them, the Farm Bureau has conducted an advertising cam-
paign through the middle west, and is interesting farmers in the possi-
bilities of New York State agriculture.

To this end it has published a book, “‘ Farming in the Empire
State,” together with a list of farms for sale, and is furnishing to home-
seekers information regarding the agricultural possibilities of different
districts and locating settlers. “The purpose is to attract more farmers
to New York State, and more farmers will mean a more intensive agri-
culture and better living conditions.

105

HAN’ D BO U0'.°.K? YOo (eRe xeP Ors lay aes

One of the farmers greatest difficulties often is the securing of
adequate farm help, and the Farm Bureau has arranged to assist him
in obtaining it. The various ticket agents furnish blank forms which
may be filled out with information as to the kind of labor wanted,
wages offered, etc. These requests are then forwarded to the Farm
Bureau. The labor is secured for the Bureau by the State Depart-
ment of Agriculture, and consists both of recent immigrants and those
who have been in this country for some time and are familiar with
American methods of farming and farm operations. Inasmuch as
many of these men have but scanty funds, it is generally necessary to
deposit their carfare with the ticket agent. This amount can be de-
ducted from the man’s wages after he enters the farmer’s employ.

Through the Farm Bureau the NEW YORK CENTRAL
RAILROAD is conducting an educational campaign, and is carry-
ing information as to farming operations to the very door of the farm-
ers in several different ways.

The railroad supplies trains, known as “ Better Farming Spe-
cials,’’ equipped both for lecture and demonstration purposes, and has
secured the co-operation of the State Department of Agriculture and
the agricultural colleges in supplying lecturers and demonstrators.
‘These men are practical farmers who have made a study of conditions
and are thoroughly acquainted with their subjects and the needs of
the various localities. At each stop they give talks and demonstra-
tions on such subjects as fertilizers, feeding of dairy cows, seed testing,
the treatment of seed to prevent disease, and on pruning and spraying.

The earnestness of the farmers, both young and old, to secure
information that will be of help to them is marked; questions are asked
and answered, and a knowledge of fundamental principles thus ac-
quired which must, if applied, result in increased crop yields.

This educational work is further extended by the bulletins issued
from time to time by the Farm Bureau. These pamphlets detail the
subjects discussed on the Better Farming Special trains, and also treat
of practical questions which confront the farmer in his daily farm

106

ie, NOY: CENTRAL RAILROAD’S AID TO FARMERS

practices. Bulletins are published on subjects dealing with the value
and use of manure, seed selection and seed treatment, cultivation, the
growing of alfalfa, etc.

There are numerous questions, however, which cannot be an-
swered altogether by bulletin information. Conditions vary accord-
ing to localities, and even in the same localities, and so different results
are often obtained from the same practices. Any one of a number

of things may be the reason for these different results.

Different soils are adapted to different crops, and admit of dif-
ferent systems and methods of cultivation. Failure may be due to an
attempt to grow wrong crops, to improper cultivation, or to a system
of crop rotation which may not be adapted to maintaining soil pro-
ductiveness and fertility. Orchards may be in need of pruning or
fertilization, or a dairy may not be giving the results it should. Such
questions need personal attention. It is very much like a patient whom
a doctor must visit to prescribe intelligently.

To assist the farmers in meeting such questions, the Farm Bureau
has engaged an Agriculturist who is at the farmers’ service to per-
sonally consult and advise with them, free of charge, in regard to such
matters.

Any farmer desiring the services of the Agriculturist, makes ap-
plication to the Farm Bureau and states the matter about which he
desires information. The Agriculturist then arranges to call upon him.

In these ways the NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD
is endeavoring to advance those interests which are so vital to both
farmer and railroad—to the farmer, directly, because better farming
will mean greater prosperity, and to the railroad because better farm-
ing practices will mean more freight to haul, more passenger traffic,
and a general improvement of living conditions throughout the rail-

road’s territory.

107

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USE OF EXPLOSIVES .
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Issued by
NEW YORK CENTRAL & HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD C0.

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