Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-09-30
that the means of utilizing it, if not yet

IL. Water-a hilly, woody country
naturally abounds in springs and brooks
in ripping streamlets and dashing
cascades. ALI these are reservoirs of
power-for the most part unused, unre-
garded power Our waterfalls, whether
natural or artificial. will yet be employ
ed to create q should say transfer) pow
er, in the shape of compressed air; and
this power will in time be used at long
distances from the point at which it was
pressed into the service, of man. Espe-
cially in regions like this, where consid-
erable streamlets often fall hundred
feet in mile, will water be made to
play prominent part in the creation.
or utilization of - VIC i''i iioi'
me Hon. William D. Kelley, arguing
to southern audience the impolicy of
slavery, asserted that dozen men and
dogs had often followed for days on the
track of one lame negro, while water
power equivalent to the muscular force
of a thousand negroes ran to waste un-
regarded beside them. We smile at
the folly thus forcibly exposed; but
might not the smile be broadened into
laugh and turned against ourselves :?
If we lack the brain power to stop this
monstrous waste, feel sure that our
grandchildren will possess and exercise
| it.
Ill. Steam. Whether steam may or
may not soon be superseded by electric
ity or some other natural force, | can
not stop here to consider. | cannot be-
lieve that the power which sends mes
sages in an instant from Stamboul to
San Francisco will long be found made
quate or unfit to tighten the farmers
labor or to increase its product AS
yet, however. steam is the only force ar
tifcially evolved from dead, inorganic
matter which has been widely pressed
into the service of productive industry
Steam forges the hammers and cuts iron
it converts animal and vegetable fbers
into every form and fashion of textile
fabric; it is to-day doing more work
than all the artisans and artifcers on
earth could do without it. Steam is to-
day mans most useful servant; the OF
and the horse do his bidding on fal
wider area but their relative power i.
declining, while that of steam is still
rapidly advancing. To dispense will
steam would set us back long stage OF
uno mrerepy we nuve advanced
from barbarism.
But steam has as yet rendered littl
direct service to the farmer. 1t shoult
and might have rendered much. Ami
NAL power is not merely slow and inef
fective in comparison with this; it la
bors under the capital disadvantage Q
being costly while idly waiting throug
weeks and months for the return of gen
ial weather whereas steam engine n
longer used or needed may be oiled u
, and set away under shelter, where ]
need consume nothing until once MOI
needed. If steam were as costly Will
in use as horsepower, this fact woul
5 render it immensely preferable. Nevt
5 striking for higher wages nor fewt
r hours, steam will work increasingly, Ill
complainingly, from Monday mornir
e till Saturday night, asking only to
: fed, and drinking nothing stronger tina
water.
Our harsh, capricious climate, wit
e its late and early frosts, its long frozt
}, and then thoroughly sodden fields, i
l. vites to the use of steam. [ have know
; Illinois and her neighbors to be visitt
r with rain after rain in spring time,
V that scarcely an acre per township
o plowing for corn had been effected
% the middle of May. Now the sky cleal
v the soil dries, and everything invites
o plowing and planting but there is har
ly time to put in half a crop before see
v ing must give way to cultivating, a
e. the planted area can be no further e
,e larged. With steam plows, quadrul
the present number of acres may be /
ii ted to receive the seed in d week; a
IT so all the risk and loss to which raj
4? season in spring now subjects us may
e. obviated
lie Of course, New England will nev
IN. more grow all her own again she c
i'd do better. But that she might advan
5 geously grow more grain, and larger
ny erage crops Of it, l fully believe. I
IN chief obstacle Of her grain-growing
M heres not in her climate, nor even
) =? the qualities of her soil, but in its
he cious topography. An arabic, fer
he acre or SO, with rocky ridge on
,th side and morass or sodden, weedy br
air margin ON the other, affords no scope
,ut the profitable growing of grain.
W. Eastern agriculture is too fragmentar,
ng a thing of shreds and patches. A:
we sat beside New England born far
Jus in Illinois. and looked off across
rto quarter-section of dry, fertile prai
re- mainly under fence, l asked him, #
to much corn do you grow annually
our "About sixty acres. . with what he'll
ON 'None." "What area do you plan
do fEo