The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1911 PLOUGHING BY DYNAMITE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 November 1911, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1911 PLOUGHING BY DYNAMITE.

Some months a.go we wrote regarding tho advantages of deep plongliiug, and made incidental reference to America's moist recent device tor deep distil rbance of the soil: i.e., the use of explosives. Exactly how this idea grew no one has shown, lmt we suspect that some pliilosopliic observer marked how bush fires which destroy buried roots of trees, and in so doing crumble arid disintegrate the soil to a great depth , , ensure heavier and generally hotter crops from tilie soil thus affected. From this point it was no great mental step to the idea of disturbing large areas of soil hy means of explosives. Tho National Department of Agriculture of the United States has done a good deal to help forward this new branch of agriculture. From a. recent Amertioan pronouncement on the subject wo note that the State of Kansas has devised and successfully tried a method of ploughing that is now being adopted in many other States. Dynamite is used for breaking and pulverising tho earth in place of turning it up by the plough. Tho process is entailing only the boring of holes in the ground, the insertion of small pieces of dynamite in tho itoles, and the ex-plosion of the dynamite. The Department of Agriculture points out that the ten inches : of soil, which has been turned up for j years has had its richness exhausted; | and the crops are therefore not near- j ly so .good as they might be. It has j been found that a hard crust of earth forms at tho lOin. depth, and rain, unable to penetrate this cm; t settles in puddles on the surface, j and is absorbed by the sun. On rhe other hand, where dynamite nas been used, the crop products are j said to be phenomenally good. ! Where the soil is heavy, the holes ■are . bored . aJbout Bft. apart, and 2in. of a dynamite stick are placed in each hole. Where the soil is light the holes are about 35ft. apart.