Dynamite often is used to blow stumps to pieces, and the work is not considered dangerous since the invention of safety devices. In some sections of the country where firewood is valuable, dynamite has the advantage of saving the wood. An expert with dynamite will blow a stump to pieces so thoroughly that the different parts are easily worked into stove lengths. Pitch-pine stumps have a chemical value that was not suspected until some fellows got rich by operating a retort. FARM ELEVATING MACHINERY Many handy and a few heavy elevators are being manufactured to replace human muscle. The simple tripod beef gin was familiar to the early settlers and it is still in use. When a heavy animal was killed for butchering, the small ends of three poles were tied together to form a tripod over the carcass. The feet of the tripod were placed wide apart to raise the apex only a few feet above the animal. After the gambrel was inserted and attached the feet of the tripod were moved gradually closer together as the skinning proceeded, thus elevating the carcass to swing clear of the ground. _Grain Elevators._--As a farm labor-saver, machinery to elevate corn into the two-story corncrib and grain into the upper bins is one of the newer and more important farming inventions. With a modern two-story corncrib having a driveway through the center, a concrete floor and a pit, it is easy to dump a load of grain or ear corn by raising the front end of the wagon box without using a shovel or corn fork. After the load is dumped into the pit a boy can drive a horse around in a circle while the buckets carry the corn or small grain and deliver it by spout into the different corncribs or grain bins. There are several makes of powerful grain elevating machines that will do the work easily and quickly. The first requisite is a building with storage overhead, and a convenient place to work the machinery. Some of the elevating machines are made portable and some are stationary. Some of the portable machines will work both ways. Usually stationary elevators are placed in vertical position. Some portable elevators may be operated either vertically or on an incline. Such machines are adaptable to different situations, so the corn may be carried up into the top story of a farm grain warehouse or the apparatus may be hauled to the railway station for chuting the grain or ear corn into a car. It depends upon the use to be made of the machinery whether the strictly stationary or portable elevator is required. To unload usually some kind of pit or incline is needed with any kind of an elevator, so the load may be dumped automatically quickly from the wagon box to be distributed by carrying buckets at leisure. [Illustration: Figure 131.--Portable Grain Elevator Filling a Corncrib. The same rig is taken to the railway to load box cars. The wagon is unloaded by a lifting jack. It costs from 1c to 1-1/2c per bushel to shovel corn by hand, but the greatest saving is in time.]