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Show ! DYNAMITE IN ORCHARD Should Be Done Only Where Tree Is to Be Planted. Advantage Is That the Roots Will Pentrate to a Greater Depth and Irrigation Will Go Deeper Reslatance to Drought. The first thing to be known -In planting an orchard Is how to prepare the ground to be planted. The ground should be treated Just as If we were going to plant It to any grain crop, such as wheat, oats, barley or corn. All trash should be removed and the ground should be well plowed. How deep to plow must be determined by the nature of the soil. Borne soils are naturally loose and open. In such cnea the plowing need not be very deep for the simple reason that such soils cannot be materially changed by plowing, writes F. Walden In the Denver Den-ver Field and Farm. Hut when the ground Is compact and hard It should be loosened up to th depth of a foot or more. In many such cases If the stirring plow could be followed by a narrow subsoil plow, much good would be accompllshel. If there Is bardpan within one or two feet of the surface, then the use of dynamite Is to be recommended. It would not be best to dynamite the whole field to be planted for that would be attended with much labor and expense. Instead of this wholesale whole-sale dynamiting, let the ground be laid off and the place where each tree Is to be set can be dynamited. Tbe advantage In dynamiting where each tree Is to be set Is that the roots will penetrate to a much greater depth and the Irrigation water will go as' deep as the roots. A tree In such position po-sition will resist drought much better than those planted over hardpan for these have nil their roots near tbe surface sur-face and will readily dry out. A friend of mine told me about a peculiar case of the benefits of dynamiting dyna-miting that happened to a man In Missouri. In cleaning off his orchard tract there was occasionally a big stump that was blown out with dynamite. dyna-mite. The object in using dynamite was simply to get rid of these stumps, with no thought of benefiting the condition con-dition of the lnnd. The ground was planted to apples and all parts received re-ceived the same kind o cultivation. But to the man's surprise be found thai now and then a tree was more vigorous than Us neighbors and In a few years was almost twice as large. That was not all, for when tho orchard or-chard came Into bearing, these vlg- 1 orous trees bore large and better ap- ' I plea. At first this whole matter was 1 1 mystery to the orcbardlstBftxpPJ ho remembered the dynamiting aim upon examination he found that each ' one of these vigorous trees stood ' where a stump had been blown out. ' It wis found upon examination that water went very much deeper where ' the soil had been broken up by the dynamite and as a result the moiBture about the lower roots lasted through Ihe dry season and thus the trees there remained vigorous and continued contin-ued to grow while the other trees In the orchard looked sickly and the 1 fruit on them was small and poorly 1 colored. ' From this and from lessons learned by observation I am convinced that In many cases It would pay large returns 1 If we dynamited the ground where 1 each tree Is to be planted. I have some places In my own orchard where 1 this method of dynamiting would be 1 practiced If I were again setting the ground to apples. A low grade of I dynamite should be used. A hole 1 could be drilled with a crow bar to 1 the depth of three or four feet and 1 the charge exploded at the bottom. I 1 have had no experience In this matter t and cannot give the cost of such work, but I am told by those who I claim to know that the expense Is light. r |
