The stump puller shown in the accompanying engraving (page 130) is exceedingly powerful, as, by a system of compound levers, a pull of one pound on the operating bar will exert a pull of 384 pounds on the stump, and if the lifting chain be passed around a single pulley, this power is doubled. With one of these machines one man has pulled a green maple stump two feet in diameter from clay soil. The pulling mechanism is supported by a tripod, to the upper end of which is secured a chain carrying a bar or plate provided with a bearing in which slides a notched bar. Meshing with the notches of this bar are the teeth of a pawl, which is so connected, by levers, with the operating handle that the downward movement of the latter will raise the pawl and notched bar and the chain attached to its lower end. A sliding bolt then holds the notched bar in its raised position, when the handle can be raised to enable the pawl to engage with the next lower teeth of the bar. Thus, by a succession of up and down movements of the handle, the notched bar may be elevated its entire length, or until the stump is pulled completely out. It will be seen that the sliding bolt permits of the upward, but prevents the downward, movement of the notched bar when the pawl is disengaged and slides downward. But, by means of a suitably arranged hand lever, the pawl may be moved so as to be out of contact with the bar, and, at the same time, the bolt, which is pressed forward by a spring, may be moved to disengage it from the notch in the bar, which may then be adjusted in any desired position. The machine is built of steel and malleable iron.

This invention has been patented by Messrs. R. R. Tichenor and P. Walker, of Henning, Minn.