EXPERIENCE DEPABTMEfij.
: We are receiving many assurances by letter and
otherwise that this department is greatly appreciated by the readers of the Fabmer. The practical things published here from the best prac-
tlcsl farmers, many write us are very acceptable
and beneficial to the reader. We refer to these
matters for the gratification of the contributors to
our Experience Department. Three cash premiums of $1,75 cents and 50 cents are paid for the
three best articles in each issue. The department
il limited to one page and the article must be brief.
Itis not always the longest that wins by  any
CLEARING-  LAND.
! 	
Cutting eif ln the Oreen or Deadening
How to get rid of TMcketa?
'i
How Do You Clear?
4 1st Premium. After cutting all timber
that is of value for sale or building lumber, if you do not need the timber that is
left for tire wood, by all means deaden
near the ground, catting deep, and deadening everything clean. Within the last
ten years I have cleared 90 acres both
clay and loam, and the best time I have
fonnd to kill timber and have it rot
quickly and the limbs rot and break oft
at the body of the tree, and many of the
trees break off at the "dead line," is the
•-last half of June and first half of July. I
always grub thickets. A- neighbor
"slashed" about an acre, cutting in August near the ground, firing the leafy
brush the next spring. I grubbed a bairn of about an acre, same fall, and there
has not been a sprout a foot high in mine
while my neighbor "slashes" every spring
and fall to say nothing of vexation in
breaking and cultivating. But some one
says "grubbing is hard work." Not very,
If you prepare for It and know how. If
grubs are small, two men working together can do more than twice as much
'as one. If grubs are heavy use pulley, if
Very heavy use one double and one single pulley, putting double pulley on grub.
.This with one team will give an eight
■horse power, and a strong rope will ba
'needed, as chain would be heavy to han-
•dle.
| Now for the clearing ot the heavy
f timbered land. Any time after your tim-
| ber ia deed at odd times clear a strip
along all fences, so that at the proper
time you can let fire run where it will in
clearing and by scattering fire (I use an
old iron shovel). You can burn a great
amount without piling. The logs that
are left are to be cut in proper lengths to
be easily handled. A double log hook is
made of iron, or steel, 1]4*.% inches. (I
used the gangs of an old walking corn
plow) on the same principle of Ice hooks,
only the hinge rivet must be about one-
fourth the distance from the hitch end,
«properly bend and shape so that the
points will hold in a log. Put strong
links in hitch end, with hitch ring in
both links. To the hitch ring attach a
piece of strong chain two feet long, with
a good ring in end to attach to "stretchers." With this hook you need not pry a
log, as all you have to do is to throw the
hook over the log and-drive oft. If log
is large pull straight on hook; if small
put hook well back and put both points
under the log. One man to manage the
team, one to the hook, and two with
spikes will pile a large amount of logs in
a day. It will pay to wait a few days to
let the heaps dry a little before firing, if
piled in the spring, set fire to them in the
evening. The next morning two men
with spikes can throw together the logs
that are left. X
2d Premium.—Cut it off while the timber ia green. Timber is too valuable to
deaden and burn. Burn your brush as
you cut it. It is not so hard to do as you
might think; then you will only have a
ew logs to drag together and burn. The
grass will grow up among the stumps if a
little seed is sown, and you will have excellent pasture until the stumps rot go
you can farm. Don't clear the old slipshod way; brash piles every place;
thistles, briars and weeds grow up
among them; that's out of date. Thickets should be cut off even with
the ground in winter, when ground
is frozen, or in August when in full leaf.
As soon as dry burn them. We select August, it in summer, as we usually have
dry weather then, and a little more time
to spare than at any other time during the
summer. Wm H. Peffley.
Carroll Co.
3d Premium.—Clearing land to any
great extent is a Ihlng of the past, and
the attention of the American farmer
should be turned to how to preserve what
land is cleared rather than to clear more.
The American forests to a great extent
have been wasted by our forefathers, and
it is getting a common practice in this
county (Brown) that where you see one
man wasting his timber you see ten saving it. The easiest and best way to clear
is to deaden, but it is not the quickest.
The quickest'way is to cut oft in the
green, bnt not the best for the land The
best time to deaden is when their is
the most sap in the wood, and then it
will decay quickly. The roots will de
cay quickly in the ground, which will be
a great benefit to the soil. Also the burning over of the deadening will distribute
the potash evenly over the soil.
The best way to clear up a thicket is to
cut it off, three or four inches from the
ground, about the last of July or first of
August, and when it gets real dry in the
following spring, set fire to it and burn it
over; helping the fire by keeping it
stirred up for a few days.
Have a few sheep to turn in in case it
should sprout, and if any trash remain
pile and burn at your leisure. This
would be my way of clearing, and I
think is best and easiest.
Brown Co. C. M. Patterson.
In clearing land I am governed by the
condition of the timber, and the state of the
land to be cleared. If densely timbered I
I prefer to deaden, and let the timber become thoroughly dead before clearing. If
the timber is thinly scattered over the
ground and portions of it being bushes so
the ground has tbe benefit of, more or
less sunshine, then I cut, pile and grub,
burn and get into cultivation as soon as
possible. The most successful way to get
rid of thickets is to select some dry time
when the sap is up, run fire through the
thicket, which will generally kill the
bushes that get anyways hot. And if
anything of a successful buru the fire
will destroy all briars and trash, and
leave the thicket in good condition to
work at. And if not too thick and large
I go right on grubbing the small bnshes
and cutting off the larger ones, and get
the ground into cultivation as soon as
possible. D. M. Lett.
Jackson Co.
Fire the patch to be cleared early in
April when vegetation begins to put
forth buds. See that a very dry time is
selected, that the fire may do most effective work. Do nothing more for 12 or
18 months, or better two years. Pasture
closely during this time to prevent all
new growth. The fire will deaden all
bushes "and Ivery small trees. Do necessary additional deadening with the ax. At
the end of time indicated many small
roots will have rotted. Much ol the
deadened "growth can now be easily
pulled up—some of It by hand, yet others
with a steady strong team of horses.
That a; considerable period of time is
required is not necessarily an objection
to this process, if the use of the land can
be spared.   Economically there is no loss
but rather gain, as compared with green
clearing and cropping at once. This latter process is very unsatisfactory so far
as cultivation and welfare of land are
concerned. It Is next to impossible to
cultivate and keep down new growth
which springs from the green roots beneath. Daring the eighteen, months or
two years the deadening and rotting are
going on the land is actually gaining in
fertility and improving In physical texture, rendering it easily tilled and responsive to crop-growth. Many roots and
stumps perish very slowly after green
clearing. In fact this process invigorates many growths. It causes them to
spread and become more tenacious. If
the entire bush or tree-roots, trunk and
limbs, is firBt deadened there can be no
possibility ot this and not so much of
tough matted roots to hinder cultivation
X. Y.
• When we wish to clear a pieoe of land
we use or sell the valuable timber. We
soon have a strip of land pretty well cut
off. Then, some time when it is dry, we
go in with fire and burn off. But now we
have the stumps left, and we cannot do
much on the "new ground" with our Improved farm machinery until we get clear
of them. When tbe stamps have stood
two or three years we blow them out
with dynamite. It will not pay the average farmer to "blow" green stumps on
account of oost. Some of the largest
stamps we do not aim to blow ont clean.
We put under three or four sticks of the
stuff. This will blow the dirt out and
split them some; then we pile on the
other stumps we have blown out, and
this will when fired burn out the large
stumps. With due care this is a simple
and safe operation, but of course no one
should use dynamite un.il he bas received instructions in detail from some
competent person. Any person who
wants to can learn to use it as soo:. as he
sees some one who understands it blow a
few stumps, giving instructions how it is
done. It is a grand euooess. To get rid
of thicket-: If cutoff the last of Mayor
the first of Jane, our experience is, the
roots will decay sooner than any other
time. Cut from 12 to 18 inches high. We
start fire and throw on and burn as cut
off The poles make good wood it large
enough. Trim them out. Get an engine
and saw and cut them up. If the stumps
begin to sprout fence oft the land from
any that has grass on and turn in sheep.
The ewes with their lambs are best. The
lambs take great delight in nibbling the
young shoots. Let them back and forth
every few days, from the clearing to the
pasture. Four or five sheep to the acre
will keep oown the sprouts. If not turn
on more. The stumps don't live long
without leaves, and they soon decay with
this treatment. For clearing oft button
wood I would pull with a team using
block and tackle if necessary.
Wayne Co. Harry Nichols.
review.
One criticism sent in on this department is that the writers don't agree. My
friend, we don't live and work under the
same conditions. By comparing methods we may find a helpful suggestion
here and there.
It is a popular .belief that ground is
made richer by deadening timber, than
by clearing in the green. That sap goes
back to the soil. Tbat roots rot more
quickly. May I express my doubt of
each of these statements. There la a
slight amount of humus added to the soil
by rotting timber, but It is mostly licked
up by fire. The Bap does not go back to
the soil. "The roots rot much more
quickly when trees are cut down than
when deadened; as it takes three years
for a deadened tree to die.    '
It Is true that trees thtlt sprout from
the stump will sprout less if deadened,
and also true that if sprouts are not killed)
the roots will stay green. Of course we
all agree with friend Isenhour and others
that a green clearing is mean to cnltivate.
But Mr. X. Y. pastures his deadening till
the stumpB become more rotten.
BenWilliams makes the logs and chunks
burn out the s tumps. Harry Nichols uses
dynamite on the long lived stumps. If 1
had money to spare I'd blast all the oak
and walnut out of my land, including my
deadenings at once. These have been cut
several years.
B. W. uses the logs and chunks to burn
out stumps. So does Claude Storm. Mr.
W. also grubs at once as the speediest
way.
Oar readers will be muoh interested fn
the various ways of getting away with
thickets. One grubs them, others bushwhack and burn. Some cut when frozen
hard. One runs fire through, the first
thiDg. The writer published in the
Farmer a year or two ago the experiment of a neighbor who walked on icei
formed on overflow water, in a very cold
time and cut down a thicket, which
scarcely sprouted. Adjoining my lower
farm is a thicket which was whacked 18
inches high fore part of June, and
scarcely sprouted. One can kick the tall
stamps over now (two years after). We
pulled grubs two inches and less with a
chain over the back bolster of a common
wagon. As the wagon moves it pulls forwards and upwards with great force, we
had a hook made for the purpose. A
neighbor turned 40 big steers in his eight
acre thicket with nothing to eat for three
days, and they took oft every leaf in
reach. This was in August and moBt of
the stuff died.
When to deaden is quite important. I
think there is not so much in the date, or
the moon, as in the condition of the timber. Large timber deadened when full of
flush sap, say June, rots more quickly;
while deadened in September or later the
limbs shed their bark and become "hard
as iron." I bought 80 acres of green timber, seven years ago, and followed the
plan of selling and working off all valuable timber first. It I had it to do over
I'd deaden every thing, where I wanted
to clear, the first June that ever shone.
It will then be dying and rotting while I
cut what's of any value. I'd keep grubs
from coming, as the light is admitted by
pasturing.
I once cut off ten acres "in the green"
and put in corn; plowed it with a jumper,,
harrowed with an Acme, planted with a.
shoe, cultivated with a double shovel andi
got GO bashels of corn per acre; but it was
rough. It didn't damage the grounds
bit to clear in the green. I had a rotten
deadening joining it that does no better
than it does.
Several have asked for more discussion,
in this department, on stock. And since
the next six months is the critical period
with hog growing we have concluded to
change the topics by pushing part of
them ahead a little, and Introduce three
topics on hog raising.
Through the kindness of Mr. W. A.
Hart, of Portland, who is an expert
breeder and feeder, we shall publish
three articles on this subject.
[Mr. Hart's article will appear next
week instead of this. It came too late.—
Eds. Farmer].
The future topics will read as follows:
No. 49, Feb. 13, That sweet little daughter. Her opportunity, her danger, hor
destiny.
No.50, Feb. 20. Butter-making; saving
cream, ripening, churning, salting, etc.
No. 51, Feb. 27. Our schools; their
shortcomings. Suggestions for improvement.
No. 52, March 6. Hog raising No. 1.
Yards, buildings, beds. (Careful now and
only give plans, not bills.
No. 53, Maroh 13 Hog raising No. 2.
Choice of stock, not choice of breeds, but
appearance of individual parents.   Treat-
Contlnucd on 18th page,