Clearing Stumps

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 39, 11 April 1930, Page 29

Clearing Stumps

Novel Use of Vacuum Cleaner

"THAT vacuum cleaners, have many uses we already know, from catching flies on window panes to blowing the fallen leaves off the veranda, but it remains for an enterprising friend to tell us how his clesner is helping _him to break in back country. Stumping is, we believe, one of the most tedious and laborious of all the tasks that fall to the lot of the-pioneer. Burning is admittedly the cheapest and simplest method, but frequently the stumps are partly rotted and so saturated by moisture that their resistance to fire is so great that even when once fire is established it is difficult to keep it alive and active. This is where the vacuum cleaner, that we hope the farmer has already bought for his wife, comes in. It is doubtful if the lady of the house will approve of this use being made of her cleaner, but having convinced her of the necessity to lend it, the bag should be removed, and in its place a tin cap soldered on, holding eight half-inch tubes long enough to permit a #in. hose to be slipped over them. The hose should be of different lengths, 10 to 25 feet, so that it can be carried to eight fires at varying distances from the cleaner. In the end of each hose is slipped a 4 to 8ft. section of half-inch pipe, which is nozzled right in close to the ‘flame, and moved forward as the fiame advances, as, for instance, when it follows the length of a long root. Fires should be started round the stumps with kerosene, and then with the draught from the vacuum cleaner fan, made to undermine the stump completely, and so destroy the largest root in far less time than would otherwise be possible. This process leaves the top soil undisturbed, and adds to it a small deposit of wood ash, which, we all know, is highly beneficial. This use of the yacuum cleaner is eminently practical for farmer friends, since it eliminates both the cost and labour of blastiny Power lines are available nowadays in most places, and with the use of two weatherproof wires, twisted together to form a sufficiently flexible and sturdy cord, (or kapti flax), the cleaner can be connected from the house or shed, and used as far away as 500 feet or more from the point of connection.