Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-04-01
Lightning Rods.

County, Pa, states that rod agent
called on him to convince him that
plated copper was much better for
lightning rods than iron, and especial
ly better than rusted iron. He brought
"a battery" with two rods a foot
long, one plated copper and the other
rusted iron. With the copper, held in
the hand in contact with the battery,
the electric current could be felt; with
the rusted iron no sensation was per-
ceptible, and the agent triumphed.
We have never yet met with a light
ning-rod agent whom we could not 81
lence with two Or three questions
This one must have been very imor-
ant if he did not know that frictional
or machine electricity is entirely dis
tinct from that produced by acids act
ing on metal. The former is the same
as that coming from the clouds; and
If our correspondent had required the
agent to perform the experiment with
a common electric machine sufficient
to give a strong spark, there would
have been no difference between the
copper and the rusted iron. The COW
ering of non-conducting rust, which ex-
cluded the galvanic current, would
have been instantly passed by the
spark. Copper is a better conductor
than iron, in about the same degree as
it's higher cost, and iron being sitter is
better. On account of the very COM
mon want of information on the prin-
ciples of electricity, the failure of many
lightning rods as protectors of build
ings from their wrong construction, is
readily accounted for.-C0untry Gen.
t1el1an.
More Brain Power on the Farm.
About the best use a farmer can
make of himself is, to devote the long
winter evenings to an increase of his
mental activity. Farms differ in their
productiveness, mainly according to
the amount of intelligence that is
brought to their cultivation. Brain
power may be increased by q thor
ough knowledge of the present condi-
ton of the farm, and its worth as a.
machine to make money. What
crops have paid, and what have been
raised and sold at loss? What per
cent. has it paid ON the capital invest
ed? In the case of the gain what Sc
cured it? Was it the manure applied,
or the frequent tillage, or the extra
amount of rainfall? In the case of
loss, was it the want of fertilizers, was
the crop choked by weeds, or was the
seed poor, and the crop damaged by
the planting? This accounting for
failures is as profitable as Dragging
over big crops, without making any
record of the process of obtaining them.
Brain power may be increased bv
planning improvements. There may
be several acres of peat-swamp or bog
meadow producing only brush and
bog hay, hardly worth cutting. There
is a good outlet, and it can be drained
three feet or more deep. Cipher out
the cost of drainage, and of making it
produce three tons of clover or timo-
thy to the acre. Would not the sight
of the waving heads of the grass be
more pleasing than the cat-tails, flags
and skunk-cabbages, that now waste
their sweetness upon the desert air
There may be an acre of swale, under
laid with hard pan, over which ferns,
weeds, and aquatic grasses run riot
during the whole summer. Is it not
time the bottom was knocked out of
it, by tiles laid three or four feet in
the ground and the superhuous water
compelled to 60 through these, instead
of creeping lazily over the surface? It
can be made the best grass land on
the farm. Why not make it so, and
handle the dollars that come from the
maximum crops? Brain power can
be increased BY reading and digesting