Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1872-09-20

trundle 1t before him along the grouhu' Inc
hay crop Of to-day is saved with less than
half the tax on human muscle freely paid by
our grandfathers. Admit that our boys do
not choose to bend their backbones into hoops
and indurate their muscles into whip cord If
they can achieve comfortable livelihood 9th.
erwise, see nothing in this to provoke in
vectivc or justify reproach. An intellect
ual age and people naturally prefer TO sub
stitute animal or mechanical power for that
Of human sinews, wherever IL can do 80 With
facility and manifest advantage.
Now, it is the simple, manifest truth that
far greater progress in this substitution has
been made in other industries than in agricul.
ture. Commerce, which once employed wag-
ons, and caravans, and row boats has nearly
dispensed with these by the aid Of wind and
steam-of sailing vessels, steamships, rail-
roads and locomotives. Steam takes our
cotton, corn, and other staples, from a station
near the grower, puts it on shipboard by an
elevator, speeds it across an ocean, hoists IL
into the merchants loft, and lowers il down
again wherever it is wanted. Mind directs
and guides while steam supplies all the phys
ical force that is needed. So in almost every
department of manufacture. The brain
power required is of human origin this COM
mands, impels and regulates all the other
power required. In agriculture this is but
partially, im9erfec1y paralleled and agri-
culture loses in consequence the service of
the brighter, ADLER portion of our youth.
We must remedy this, not by fruitless, sense
less railing at the boys for doing what seems
to them fittest and most inviting, but by ex-
tending the conquests, and enlarging the do
main of mechanical power.
Let me barely hmt-for can only take
time to hint-at some of the directions in
which this enlargement is to be sought and
realized:
l. Wind.-FQr at least FIVE thousand
years wind has played leading part in navi-
cation; why not in cultivation Does ma
turc afford any reason for regarding wind as
inherently tractable aad servicable on water
but not ON land Men have ground grain
by wind-power for at least hundred genera
tions why not thresh it as well Nay, why
should it not press cheese, and turn grindstone
and saw wood, and pump water, and even, ul-
timately. plow felds2 Who dreams that
the inventions of the past bear any proper
ton to those of the imminent future2 We
have at length learned that such is the elias
ITCHY Of air that windmill running through
out the night may thereby accumulate power
to be expended during the ensuing dag OF
days. Can you suppose that we shall much
longer allow this enormous aggregate of pow.
er, which has hitherto thrust itself into our
very faces unregarded or at least uncompre'
hended, to expend its energies in toppliug
over our chimneys and blowing the apples
from our trees? L tell you this is not posi-
bic. | have HOthing to say of AS or BIS oil
Cs continuance for utilizing the power o.
wind in the service Of agriculture. If you
insist that all these are fantastic and absurd
| shall not contradict you l shall only in
sist in my turn that the power is there-tha
it sweeps over every field on almos. every
day.. and that the means of utilizing it. If no
yet discovered, soon will ald must be.
II. Water.-A billy, woody country nat
urally abounds in springs and brooks-in rip
pling streamlets and dashing cascades. Al
these are reservoirs of power--for the mos
part unused, unregarded power Our water
falls, whether natural or artificial, will ye
be employed to create Il should say transfer
power, in the shape of compressed air; aut
this power will in time be used at long dis
tances from the point at which it was pressed
into the service of man. Especially in re
gions like this, where considerable streamlet
often fall "a hundred feet in mile, will wa
ter be made to play an important part in tn
creation or utilization Of power for the farm
er. The Hon. William d. Kelley, arguing
to southern audience the impolicy of slav
cry, asserted that dozen men and dogs ha,
often followed for days on the track of on
lame negro, while water-power equivalent t
the muscular force Of thousand negroes raj
to waste unrcgarded beside them. We smi!
at the folly thus forcibly exposed but nigh
not the smile be broadcned into laugh an,
turned against ourselves2 If we lack tn
brain-power to stop this monstrous waste,
feel sure that our grandchildren will posses
and exercise it,
". Steam.-Whether steam may or ma,
not soon be superseded by electricity or som
other natural force, cannot stop here +
consider. | cannot believe that the powe
which sends messages in an instant fror
Stamboul to San francisco will long be foun
inadequate or unfit to tighten the farmer
labor or to increase its product. As yet, how
ever, steam is the only force art6cially evolv
ed from dead, inorganic matter which ha
been widely pressed into the service of pre-
ductivc industry. Steam iorges the han
mers and cuts iron it converts animal an
vegetable 6bres into every form and fashio
of textile fabric it is to-day doing NOR
work than all the artisans and artifcers O
earth could do without il. Steam is to-da
mans most useful servant the horse an
the OK do his bidding on a far wider area
but their relative power is declining, Will
that of steam is still rapidly advancing. 7
dispense with steam would set us back lon
stage on the road whereby we have advance
from barbarism.
But steam has as yet rendered little direC
service to the farmer. 1t should and Nigh