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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (July 2, 1914)
10 Removing Stumps at Moderate Cost J. L. Ashlock, of the Washington State College, Gives Much Valuable Information, (Concluded.) fifHILE the process as described bus If eeeded very well in Woodland clearings and elsewhere where similar conditions prevailed, Sparks very soon round that in other localities it would fail. For instance, the Wood . land method would not do the business in sandy soil. It took many months to surmount this difficulty. Finally, laying aside for the moment the studv of different mechani cal steps to produee burning. Sparks ueivea into the science of heat, radia tion, combusion, and kindred subjects, seeking in the foundation sciences of it all the solution for his problem. He eventually succeeded, working out his conclusion in this wise: The covering is put on the wood to keep the air from reaching the fire iu a volume which would produce complete combustion. But that is not all. The covering is put on to conserve the heat. Therefore, a good covering must be a non-conductor of heat. Such a covering should bo loose and fluffy, one whieh does not run together and solidify'under the influence of heat. Clay is sueh a covering, and sand is not. Now, why is this truet Well, in the f.rst place, "dead air" is the most ef fective barrier to the radiation of heat that is known. Anyone who has built a house or even lived in one, knows that a house with double walls is warmer in the winter than a house with single walls. Hut what has this to do with the covering over the kindling wood which is to fire a stumpt Simply this: Each n.inute pore space in the soil composing the cover contains a small bit of air. The sum total of air thus retained is considerable, and is a dead air space. Heat f scaping through the covering must warm the imprisoned air before getting out, and that is not quickly thine.' So the heat of the fire is held under the cover. Sight Kind of Soil. Clny is the right kind of soil, but why? There are two principal reasons. The first :'s that clay soils are usually enric lied by a considerable amount of de cayed organic material, leaves, particles of roots, ami other combustible sub stance. When the clay becomes intense ly heated, the organic material is con sumed, leaving small cavities which im nudin'olr fill up with air. Thus a clay so'l becomes light and fluffy when sub jected to heat. The second reason Why clay is good for a covering is that it does not run into the fire and smother it In this particular, sand fails. The particles are so loosely "bound" together that they sift down into the fire, and also", when tho organic material contained in the sand is burned out, the mass settles to gether in a solid mass. Sand used for a covering not only smothers the fire by pouring into it, but packs together and excludes the air, making combustion quite impossible. To overcome the difficulties encoun tered where sandy covering is alone availahle, Sparks tried artificial cov erings such as sheet iron, tin and the like, all of which failed. He also tried lime, tar, and many different Bubstances as a "binder" to hold the sandy soil together, and again failed. Finally he tried cinders and ashes for the covering where clay soil was not available. He succeeded. Ashes, while unlike clay, remain light and fluffy during the fir ing, which is the desirable thing. Recent Demonstration. In a reeent demonstration showing bow to char-pit stumps in sandy soil, the bark was removed from the stump and roots where the fire was to be ap plied. A shallow trench was made around the stump, and into this was placed the fuel covered over with a mixture of ashes and cinders. Two operators fired 18 stumps in six hours, and 13 were burning the following morn ing. Three had been put out by a heavy rain. The other stumps were char pitted. In the way described the problem of sandy soils was settled. Then another difficulty arose. When the soil was right, and all other conditions for fir ing apparently ideal, failures would, nev ertheless occur. Men would fire their stumps, some of which would burn out, nd others would fail, though it seemed that all the stumps bad been treated in the same way. HOME ANT) FARM Upon investigating such cases, Sparks uiscovcrea that whero failures occured, it seemed to be because the toD of the j stump had been bnrned instead of the nase ana roots. Another class of fail ures wero apparently due to neither the top nor the roots having taken the fire. This desultory kind of suecess did not add to the popularity of char-nittin- stumps, and for months the outcome of tne investigations was dubious. Sparks again took ud the scientific side of the question. Badiated heat, he reasoned, travels in straight lines, aud when it strikes an opposing surface, the angle at which it is deflected is equal to the angle at which it strikes. That is, if the bulk of the imprisoned heat comes against the inner part of the cov ering along perpendicular lines, it will be thrown back perpendicularly, or into tne tire. Hut if tho lines along which the heat approached the cover formed an angle the bulk of the heat would eitner De thrown into the stump higher up, or away from the stump into the ground, this depending of course upon the angle of contact. In other words, if the cover were piled too high up the side of the stump, and if it were flat tened too much, most of the heat would bo driven into the ground. In either case, firing would not occur. Tho heat from tho fire should bo driven back along perpendicular lines into tho fire from which it came. The intense heat generated by this manner of radiation and reflection is shown by the occa sional forming of a clinker under the crown or the stump. To overcome the difficulty which is experienced in regulating the height of the cover, beginners are simply advised to experiment till they find how high tne pile should be for their particular conditions. No definite rule can be given. Suitable Fuels. Another line of experimentation has been to find different fuels which are cheap and suitable for use where wood cannot readily be obtained for kindling, which is often the case in seasons of prolonged rain. Fuel oil has been found to be very good for this purpose. This is the same material which is used by oil burning locomotives. In using this fuel oil for stump burning, the stumps are prepared by taking off the bark and digging away the surface soil to a depth of six or seven inches, making a trench about a foot wide and the side sloping toward the stump. Some sawdust is put in tho trench, or in the absence of saw dust, a few chips. The kindling is nec essary to ignite the oil, which, like coal, will not burn well until heated.- Then the oil is ponred over the kindling. Next, some bark and pieces of wood are thrown over the fuel oil to hold the cov ering up. Next, clay or cinders are put on, or soil, if it is the right kind. From this point on the usual care is given. It is not necessary to use fuel oil in dry seasons where combustible material can be secured. Recent experiments have been made with the view of reducing tho anonnt of fuel necessary to start the fire. Stumps were selected where two roots were lo cated about the right distance apart for a small fire between them. Then the bark was removed, after which a small hole about a foot deep was dug between the roots. Then an auger hole was bored from the side of each root opposite the hole, piercing down and across the roots, and coming out about half way between the ground line and the bottom of the hole. Then the fire was started in the hole, using not more kindling than could easily be carried at one armful. When the fuel had burned down to a bed of coals, one pint of fuel oil was poured down each of the augor holes, tho holos then being covered over lightly to pre vent too strong a draft. The following day it was found that the stumps had been successfully fired. The advantage of using auger holes is that there is af forded the opportunity of supplying the fire with concentrated fuel without dis turbing the covor, and the auger holes furnish a vent through and under the wet sapwood, thus evaporating moisture in the wood and making it more sus ceptible to the fire. How Fires Are Built. Hardwood trees are not common in Washington and Oregon, so experiments MAOAZTNTI SECTION up to this time are limited in that di rection. Hemlock stumps have been burned, however, an odd but effective device being used. A number of 30 penny nails were driven into spots of the wood which would be exposed to the fire, five or six nails being driven into each spot. The heads of the spikes we- left sticking out abont an inch. The fire was then built in the usual way. Iron is a good conductor of hent, so when the fire was burning, the heat fol lowed the nails into the wood, drying out and making it more combustible. The stumps were destroyed in this way. Green stumps will burn very well when started, though they are a little more difficult to fire. The bark, which is nature's protection to the growing tree against the extremes of tempera ture, should be removed. Chop through tne sapwood m a few places. Then with good kindling and ordinary eare, green stumps may be fired. In experi ments which nave been made in clear ings of Oregon and Washington, stumps of all kinds, from 50 years old to a few weeks, have been burned out. More difficult to landle tlian green stumps of otherwise fairly combustible wood, are the stumps of white fir and eeaar. . I lie former trees are also known as balsam. Balsam stumps frequently Become so wet that they wdl not float. Cedar stumps likewise will absorb much moisture. Furthermore, their roots are often small and numerous, and it is the big roots which yield most readily to char pitting. Men of Western Washing ton and Oregon who have succeeded in char-pitting other tree stumps, report many absolute failures with cedar and white fir. Among them it is quite gen erally agreed that in bottoms where white fir and cedar predominates, the char-pit method is more difficult of operation than on benches whero red fir and equally combustible stumps are found in soil which is of a clayey con sistency. Sparks, however, has succeeded in fir ing white fir and cedar, and, while ac knowledging it to be a, difficult thine to do, believes that it can be done where the necessary preliminary steps are taken. His method begins with the chopping away of the bark and sapwood and the exposing of as much of the roots as possible so that in tho dry season the stumps can dry out. He docs the firing in the very dryest season of the year. Auger holes are bored into the stumps, nails are driven in, pitch and other concentrated fuel is used in the kindling, and every precaution is taken to dry the stump and make the fire as hot as fire can be made. The cover should' be put on with every possible care. Pitch For Kindling. While pitch is useful in tho kindling, pitch in the stump retards the process. This is because charcoal-burning is largely a matter of distillation, and an excess of resinous substance . in the stump naturally makes the process of distillation slower; that is, the pitchy constituent of wood is distilled off in stead of burning as it does in an open flame. Rather curiously, water nn en tirely non-combustible substance, and pitch which is highly inflammable, alike retard the process of cliar-pitting. Of the economic importance of a method of removing stumps which is within reach of the man who by neces sity is compelled to rely upon his bare hands, his ax, and fire, and which can be operated successfully upon all stumps of ordinarily combustible wood as big as they grow and down to eight or twelve inches in diameter, little need be said. In Washington nlone there is a strip of land paralleling Ptiget Sound, which is from 15 to 30 miles in width and 150 miles long, much of which has not been reclaimed from the forest clearings. Es timates which are accepted as approxi mately correct by the agricultural ex perts of tbe state, indicate thnt this undeveloped empire should yield $50, 000,000 annually in agricultural produce; that it is capable of supporting ton times the population it now supports; that five acres of the land is quite suffi cient for an average-sized family. Quito recently the Stato College has been in formed that preparations are under way to rid several thousand acres of this land of stumps by the char-pitting meth od during tho coming summer. A few months ago tho commissioners of one of the Sound counties let a contract for the removal of stumps from a county road by the charring process, and a 15-year-old boy whose home was in the neighborhood where the work was dono, caught tho idea of it, and within a few weeks had burnt out 165 giant stumps from his home clearing, doing tho work unassisted by older persons. But even this leaves a wide margin of value for the char-pitting process. II is the stump of diameter ranging front 24 to 60 inches that puts dismay into the heart of the farmer. He knows that by hard work he can get out tho scrubby growth. Perhaps he can even afford to use nn inexpensive chargo of powder now and then to split and loosen the smaller stumps. Show him how to get the big ones out, and before many months have passed, he will have a till able clearing. Natural gas has been found on a farm a few miles west of the town of Dauphin, Manitoba, which is about 178 miles north west of Winnipeg. It is reported that the gas baa been burning with the flam six feet above the ground for several days. Free London "Tango" Necklace "Evelyn Thaw" Bracelet These two beautiful pieces of pop ular jewelry are the craze among so ciety women in New York and the largest cities. They are neat and ele gant gold finished articles that will gladden the heart of every girl of women, no matter how young or old. Very stylish and attractive. Our Free Offer. 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