The Portland daily press., 1895-03-11
UTILIZING THE WIND POWER.



The wind, like the poor, is always
with u.s. In no considerable area in the
United States is there a demand for
more wind 1t is indeed the specially
disagreeable feature Of nearly every eli
mate. The cold north winds of winter
and the raw winds of March as we'll
as the parching and drying winds
Of summer are alike disagreeable if
not destructive. But the wind is
everywhere and always a source of
power and should be utilized by the
farmer as helping hand. Windmills
are comparatively cheap, and many of
them are very effective. Great improve
ments have been made upon the old
time windmills, and a new and posi-
bly, more appropriate nomenclature is
now employed whereby we are intro
duced to "wind engines, aermotors, "
etc. Still all these improved devices are
windmills
country who can really afford to be
without a good windmill. The uses to
which such machine may be put on
every farm are various and may be
made to yield profit. To be sure, there
will be some days when the mill cam
not earn its keep through no fault of it's
own, but on most farms little atten+
ton from day to day will supplement
the3lachS of motive power, and enough
work may be done on breezy days I'd
tide over 'doldrum' Of even several
days al time. Some day-soon PERI
haps-electrical appliances will be ats
tached to the windmill, enabling the
farmer to store power as he now stores
wheat Or cider, to be drawn upon for
use whenever convenient. But the wind
mill as it is at tho present time is suffi-
Gent for most purposes to which farm
ers wish to apply power thus derived
Thus writes a correspondent of The r.
rigation Age, who adds:
Perhaps one of the most common uses
to which the power of the wind is APP
piled is the pumping Of water. Raising
water by hand, even from shallow wells
is very hard work and too slow proc
ess to be thought of ON stock farms or
when required for irrigation on farm,
however small. With good well, how
ever deep, and a modern type of wind
mill, water for household purposes,
stock and to some extent for irrigation
may be easily and cheaply raised But
the pumping of water IS only ono Of the
valuable functions to be performed by
the windmill. At comparatively small
cost, belts, shafts and gearing may be
provided whereby tho power of the wind
may be made to turn the grindstono,
move the churn, shell the corn and
grind it both for the use of the family
and the stock, as well as to do num-
Der of other errands, such as eleyating
grain and baled hay for storage in tho
barn. Cheese and cider presses may be
operated by the same power, and fodder
and wood cut also. In fact, the profit
able uses of the windmill are many. and
as users OF them acquire more expert
ence the long list OF chores for the wind
mill will be heightened, while that for
the boys on the farm may be shortened
in proportion. In brief, the modern
windmill affords the farmer tho read
lest and cheapest means to apply the
enormous force of the wind to useful
purposes about the farmstead. 1t is an
easy way to use to best advantage
waste product which costs nothing to
produce, and which may nearly always
be relied upon to ease the farmers toll
as well as that of his family, while add
ing hundred hitherto unknown COM
forts not only to the farmer and his
household, but to his fooks and herds.