. Clearing land of stumps. Clearing of land; Explosives in agriculture. How cartridges of powder swell and fill the hole when they are split and pressed with tamping stick. the quarter-inch steel needle known as a probing rod. Every blaster should have one of these rods and should make use of it at each stump. There are two ways of blasting out true tap-root stumps. One is to bore a hole in the wood of the tap-root itself, and the other is to place the charges right alongside the root and against it, like mudcap charges are placed in stone blasting. In placing the charge in the wood, make a ho
. Clearing land of stumps. Clearing of land; Explosives in agriculture. How cartridges of powder swell and fill the hole when they are split and pressed with tamping stick. the quarter-inch steel needle known as a probing rod. Every blaster should have one of these rods and should make use of it at each stump. There are two ways of blasting out true tap-root stumps. One is to bore a hole in the wood of the tap-root itself, and the other is to place the charges right alongside the root and against it, like mudcap charges are placed in stone blasting. In placing the charge in the wood, make a hole in the ground down to a point a couple of feet below the surface of the ground. Then bore a hole in the wood with a wood auger. This hole should go two- thirds or three-fourths of the way through the root. Fill the hole in the wood with explosives, fire, and the resulting blast will cut off the root. In placing the charge of explo- sives against the wood, get it at least 4 feet deep. If you can com- mand an electric blasting machine for firing, divide the charge in two and place the two parts on opposite sides. These charges may be placed only 'i\<2 f^^t deep, though you should not hesi- tate to place the charges at a greater depth when blasting large tap-root stumps, particularly if the ground is of a light nature. In all sorts of stump blasting the holes for the charges can be dug with narrow-bladed shovels, spades or crowbars, or bored with dirt augers. (See page 32.) In stony land augers cannot be used, or can be used only for parts of the holes. All things consid- Making Holes ered, it is hard to beat the bar and sledge com- bination for making holes for charges of no more than two or three sticks, or for starting holes for larger charges. The bored hole is better than the dug one because it can be tamped tighter. After much dirt once is taken out, it will not be tamped back in again as solid as it was before. Holes for inch-and-a- quarter sticks of explosives should
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectexplosi, bookyear1917
