Identifier: improvingcropyie00newy (find matches)
Title: Improving crop yields by the use of dynamite
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: New York central and Hudson River railroad company. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Explosives
Publisher: (Baltimore, The Lord Baltimore press
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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d bear magnificent crops, ifdrained. The cost of draining by the usual method of diggingditches by hand or machine, has been almost prohibitive, with theresult that this land is still lying idle. Now that it has been foundthat dynamite will dig ditches through any swamp where a man canpenetrate, no matter how thick the vegetation covering it may be,there is no reason why the large majority of this seventy million acresof swamp land should not be cultivated. When a ditch is blasted there is no outlay for expensive equip-ment, because the only machinery necessary is an iron bar, pointedat one end. In hard, dry ground, a sledge or maul is needed todrive the bar down to the necessary depth. There is no delay andexpense getting machinery into place through swamps and thickets.Not even a team is needed when ditches are dug with dynamite,for one or two men can easily carry sufficient dynamite to dig aditch four or five hundred feet long, four or five feet wide, andthree or four feet deep. 46
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GETTING THE FARM IN SHAPE When ditches are dug with dynamite the material taken fromthe ditch is practically all thrown out by the blast, and little or noshoveling is necessary. This material is not heaped up along thesides of the ditch, where it would occupy land that should be raisingcrops, and would prevent free drainage into the ditch, but is spreadevenly over the ground for a considerable distance on each side ofthe ditch. Ditches can be dug with dynamite at any time on a coupleof hours notice, as dealers who handle explosives can be found inalmost every locality. In wet weather, especially after heavy rainfalls, when it may be necessary to cut ditches and channels in ahurry, this method is invaluable. It is just as easy to dig a curved ditch with dynamite as it isto dig a straight one, because the center of the ditch follows theline of holes in which the dynamite is loaded. Although a channel or ditch dug with dynamite, andparticularly one cut through dry or sandy ground, is not

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