Connecticut western news., 1899-03-16
THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 1899.
LOST OPPORTUNITIES.

Millions of Dollars Wasted.-One Lit-
 tie Village Annually Loses S345, 500.
 It Has Lost e17 1880, 900 During the
 Last Fifty Years.
 Lost opportunities are never found. They can never be regained. There fore it behooves everybody to guard we'll their opportunities. and not to neglect them but rather to improve them. What would you think of a community up in the gold fields of Alaska who were content to increasingly engage in laborious occupations which yielded barely enough money to keep soul aud body together, while at the same time . brook was constantly bringing down from the mountains and sweeping onward through their village grains and nuggets of gold equivalent to 5000 % daily, but which the villag- CTS permitted to run to waste-to sweep on ungathered year in and year out? Would you not call that kind of man. agement short.sighted policy and a waste of golden opportunities?
 What would you think of Kansas farmer, a wheat raiser, who owned 5000 horses and would not sell them, but allowed them to constantly rem ain idle or to run at large on his farm while at an average expense of 5000 per day for 365 days in the year he used steam pow CT to blow his land and thresh his wheat? Would you not say he was apoor manager2
 Now look toward New England and you will see golden opportunities nevertheless they are neglected oppor- tunities. You will find these neglected Opportunities in Berkshire and Litch- field counties. One little village alone in Litchfeld county is losing 5000 per day and it has lost $17, 2SO. 900 as prin- cipal in the last fifty years, to say noth- ing of the compound interest it has lost during that time. Go back farther than fifty years in the computation and the figures are astonishing. Now how has it lost these fabulous sums? By not utilizing the water power which Nature has 80 bountifully provided for it. Be sure and comprehend these facts. If you doubt the statement, then figure it out yourself and thus be con vinced. Here is an extract from an article recently written by B. H. Hull, civil and hydraulic engineer, of Bridge port, concerning the water power of the Housatonic river: After describing in detail the various powers along the river from its source at Pontoosuc Lake Co Great Burlington, Mir Hull says: "At Falls Village we find the Giant power of them all, with fall of 95 feet and GA square miles of drainage area find that the flow is 62, ,5S0 cubic feet per minute, and that amount of water would produce under head of 95 feet 5000 horse power, and at 34, ,560 pounds of coal to produce one horse power, equal to 86, 400 tons for the yesr-at $4 per ton equals $345. 600, while electricity would cost a very small part of that sum.
 There gentlemen, the foregoing figures show what the water wower at Falls Village is worth if utilized; and they also show what has been lost by not utilizing tho water power! Does anyone suppose the earnings-or rather the profits-of the whole town of Ga naan annually equals what the annual value of earnings of that water power would be were it utilized? That power is especially valuable for electrical pur- poses.