The message
from John Towill contains these words:

I have never tried this but beleive that you drill a number of holes as
large and deep as practical into the stump. Fill these holes with
saltpetre in solution, repeat this filling for a number of times. Then
built a small fire over the stump. The saltpetre absorbed into the stump
will cause it to burn well.
Perhaps someone who reads this will have tried and can say if or not it is
practical.

Sounds like an ideas-man scheme: you'd never get the saltpetre to
penetrate all the stump, let alone the roots.

If you could do it, mind, and estimate the volume of wood, you could use
the corresponding amount of saltpetre, let the stump dry out and then
just light a fuse to it and be left with a rather large crater....

I did try something similar with sodium chlorate when you could get it
from any florist or seedsman for 1/6d a pound, and before the killjoys
put a fire-inhibiter with it, and it was still a dismal failure.

--
Rusty Hinge http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/tqt.htm

Dark thoughts about the Wumpus concerto played with piano,
iron bar and two sledge hammers. (Wumpus, 15/11/03)