. The lure of the land . friends were kind and encouraging, many ofthem came long distances to remonstrate after this fashion: Say, old man (thats not I), were awful fond of you and you havedone a lot for the Island. Wed hate to see you ruin yourself. Forgoodness sake give this thing up before it is too late. You know noth-ing Avill grow here under three to six years. Honest, old man, wemean it. Then the Senior Partner would walk around with them a bit andthey would say, Whats that green over there? liye. No, go-wan, it cant be! Go and look for yourself then, he would answer. They went awaynob
. The lure of the land . friends were kind and encouraging, many ofthem came long distances to remonstrate after this fashion: Say, old man (thats not I), were awful fond of you and you havedone a lot for the Island. Wed hate to see you ruin yourself. Forgoodness sake give this thing up before it is too late. You know noth-ing Avill grow here under three to six years. Honest, old man, wemean it. Then the Senior Partner would walk around with them a bit andthey would say, Whats that green over there? liye. No, go-wan, it cant be! Go and look for yourself then, he would answer. They went awaynobler and better men. Others would gather in the village stores and decide that we hadpizened the soil with gasses from the dynamite, but as the rye grewstronger and greener they said, Well, anyway, it wouldnt live thewinter through. As the weather grcAV colder the problem of handling the dynamitebecame a perplexing one. It freezes at 44° and we were absolutelydetermined to aet at least 10 acres cleared before snow The coldweather magazine A magazine was made of a large dry goods case and placed in themiddle of a pile of manure, the opening facing south. The dynamitewas stored in this, only as much as was needed for immediate workbeing removed at a time. Dynamite camp was first located in the house plot, but as thework moved westward, camp also had to move. Finally we located inthe windbreak, j)lacing cords of wood to the west, north and east, leaving the south open. An old sail cloth was thrown over the wood-pilein the daytime, keeping out the winds and making a warm sunny shel-tered spot. Here the dynamiters prepared their charges, placing themwhen ready in a small box in the bottom of which was some hot manure,a cloth w^as thrown over the top and the lid closed down. Thus theywere transported safely to the stumps already prepared for charging. The acres were cleared up quickly and cleanly, the stumpage run-ning from 270 up to 337 on the eighth acre, the ninth numbered
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpubl, booksubjectagriculture
