New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-05-24

restioa in the early morn OF Ch'isto"' -. ~
earlier: and the Spaniards brought tho "'' " CIV,
oSrnI eoro tho pilgrims built their huts around
,h Rock How came il that lessons so strik-
I'D % p,lpable can have long been dehed by
o.la On alert and eagerfor profit rs ours
helieve the time is at hand when not only Will
s,roo,,s he generally utilized to moisten adjacent
Fields and thus largely increase their product bus
when every thirsty, arid plain will have its bounte-
ous well with wind-I1 erected over 1t to pump its
contents automatically at little cost into reservoir
where after being warmed by the sun, and perhaps
fertiligee they win be drawn away in gentle rls 10
irricate acre after acre on every side believe that
even Texas could richly afierd to dig and equip
thousand such wells this Summer, and many thou
sands in the course of the next dozen years. Every
plain or ntcrvale that slopes gently, mpercepiibly
10 the stream which divides or bounds 1t, should
have its well at the highest with spacious,
shallow reservoir by its side and bitches Leaning
thence TO every point whence gravltatlon would
carry the water gently and through the soil OF
nearly OF quitea its Even though that water
should shrink until it utterly failed in seasons OF
scyereSt drouth, the soil would still respond to the
freshening influence Of the moisture with which It
had been charged and saturated during the feryid
weeks and months required to dry up its deeper
sources. Meantime, the crop would be perfected
and the drouth when it did at last fasten the irr-
gated plain, would perfOrce exhaust itself on the
season Of Natures annual sterility and wnryrepoSe
IN Che great Future which Science and human
energy are preparing, Arteslan wells. poiou ~, !"
depths of thousand to fifteen hundred 1ee' VIZ %
sunk on every arid plain and near the heau VI
capacious valley wherein water is dehcien'' " ooi0
the strong currents that flow from snpJacen' N,o"
tain OF elevated plateau between diverse ''"'r "
rivers and seas to rise by gravitaton 10 INC sl"1
and fr,tfuy oyerspread hundreds of acres, instead
Il, HortnpgS hpDpQTh.
wells bajnc cnsilv will long be comparatively rare
lint the g StaIed Plains of Texas and New-Mexico
it Tho wide mis-named Desert at either foot OF
fbe Rocky Mountains will yet be transformed into
+bcverllrous penteous feeding ground of innumer-
able cattle and sheep by irrigation whereto Artesan
wells will largely contribute; of tsem subserv-
ing the end of many ordinary wells, while drawing
water from sources beyond the reach of any or all
OF them.
TEIUMPHs OF MODERN AGRICULTURE.
Agriculture rs it steadily rises from the low level
o;barbarsm to the commanding altitude of true
civilization becomes more and more intellectual
calling. The rude pioneer, wrestling stubbornly
with the giant forest or the inhOspable marsh may
waste half his time in play idleness, but his work.
when he docs work. is purely muscular, making no
draft on mental power or culture. His fields are
subdued and titled, his crops produced and secured
almost wholly by dint of the strength IN his good
right arm But, for his civilized, enlightened de-
scendant and successor, all this is changed water
wind steam supply the needed power his task Is 10
mold and guide that power to benefcent ends. In
my boyhood the who cut an acre OF heavy grass
did therein good days work, which taxed his physl-
cal energies TO the utmost and sent him weary and
exhansted TO bed to rise stiff and for the NOR
rows duties now any intelligent, resOlute girl of
fifteen guiding span of horses, may cut hve acres
of lust such grass before cut it better than the
hest mower ever did and aiglt from her seat on the
moving machine untired and eager for picnic or
frolic after dinner. Steam saws wood into fuel for
the kitchen fireplace and the parlor stove; cuts
stalks and straw into hafincb pieces and then cooks
them into pulpy mass slices roots; churns cream
into butter without supervison and is just harness
ing itself 10 the pow resolved to pulveTize the soil
more rapidly, more cheaply to greater depth, to
more equal and perfect communion than 1T has
ever been possible to attain by the force of animal
power Manifestly, stand but on the threshold
of the new age whereof Steam is at once the har-
binger and the impulse: but enough has been de-
veloped to assure that more and better Is at
hand.
Nor shonld we doubt that Steam itself is the fore
runner of agencies still more potent and more cheaply
effioaeous Mighty as have been its achievements,
they only serve to render more obvious and lamenta
BILE its limitations Ofthe power actually generated
bv the yaporZatiOn of water cannot say now great
il the share utilized by an ordinary steam-engine,
but believe the estimates of scientists all range be-
low twenty per cent. Then the enormous weight Of
boiler fuel and water that must be transported with
every form of locomotive absoTbs nearly half the
power not squandered by imperfect devices for dl-
recting and applying it, Mighty as Steam assuredly
is it is not only blind giant, but zoe are deplOraby
blind with regard to its economy and adaptation
And why should Steam, even in its best estate,
Lo. or DIV
trammels; Thought has far outstripped it in the
invention and operation of the Magnetic Telegraph;
why sbould the wondrous power we have evoked in
Electricity be limited to the transmission of ideas
Why may it not be employed to impel material sub
stances as well True, we have not yet learned
how to transmit the power unquestonably gem
Grated by Electricity but our average Ignorance
and iucapacty resulting in obstruction and defeat
are constantly overstepped and TRANSPORTED by the
men of genius and of prescence whom God benlg-
nantly sends to lead us on from achievement to
achievement, from triumph TO triumph. To be con-
scous of a need or deficiency, is to be far the
way whereby we shall at last overcome it. Steam, as
productive force an industrial factor, is barely
century old; Electricity was hanessed TO wire
and made postboy hardly thirty years ago 1 do
not believe this ALL nor the best that this all
peryadng. irresistible power is destined to do for
US / believe that plants will yet be grown by its
aid with a celebrity never yet attained; that heat
will he profitably produced and difused by its
agency; and that power will he generated from
electric batteries, of old or new device, which will
supplement, if not in time superSede, all other me-
chanical forces liberating Man almost wholly from
obstruction and defeat by material obstacles and
.XN .f linn