Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-09-20


future the present scarcity of farm labor
will have no terrors for the model farmer.
The back breaking, nerve-racking hard
work, which has done more than any
thing else to drive the boys from the
farm, is no longer necessity, as by the
application of electricity small motors do
the threshing, churning, separating, I'M
load and press the hay, even to the milk
ing of the cows and the turning of the
hateful grindstone. Electricity has long
hGep afaithful servant to be enjoyed by
residents of the cities and larger towns,
and the farmer. isolated from central
stations and electric transmission lines,
had to do without. happily this is no
longer true and the gladstone day has
arrived when the countryman can par
take of the comforts of an electric light
on his reading table, an electrically cook
ed luncheon, corn popped in the electric
pepper or toast his feet before the lumin-
Gus radiator, even as his city relatives
and at considerably less cost.
There are many economical reasons,
which grow in importance each year,
why the farmer is interested in electric
ity. Farm help is now very scarce and
but for the foreign emigrants the future
would be dark indeed. Power is there
fore an absolute necessity in threshing,
harvesting and in the daily work about
the buildings. The supply of natural
fuel is becoming shorter every year
owing to the depletion of the forests and
the coal fields. The wood lots, so com
mon few years ago, are now practically
thing of the past. They have been
stripped of every stick of timber, the
firewood consumed and the land turned
over to grain fields or orchards.
In constructing the individual electric
up, according to the amount of power
desired and the location of the buildings.
OF course in establishing such a plant
steam power is out of the question, as it
demands too much time and attention
and the cost for fuel would eat up the
profits of the undertaking. Some good
source of power is necessary and very
naturally the countryman looks to the
elements for it, Water power appeals
to him first and if fortunate enough to
have stream of any size and fall on the
premises the power question resolves
itself into the easiest way to harness the
water. If the fall is great a storage
reservoir is required with piping, or if
the fall is only a few feet dam Of the
flow type will have to be constructed.
The building of a dam is very simple
now with the recent Announcements in
the art of concrete construction. The
small turbine water Wheel direct con-
lures are installed in tiny power house.
The current is carried to the various
buildings on insulated wires supported
on high poles Such plant requires nc
attention no more than oiling once in q
while, and enough current can be gen
Grated to light the home, do the cooking
washing and ironing and to drive all the
farm machinery. E. B. Miner, of Oris
kany Falls, N. Y, has such plant anC
with only about six feet of water fall h,
gets enough current to do all the worl
about the farm and to light and heat hi
house. Numbered among the moto
driven machines on the Miner farm ar,
the separator churn, thresher, tanning
MILL silo cutter, grinders, washing ma
chine and wringer, feed cutters, saw
; and tools in the repair shop. Incubator
are now heated by electricity, the cur
2 rent destroys animal life harmful t
: trees, plant life is propagated; horses ar
curried and clipped by it. corn is shelleC
and water pumped.
g Throughout the eastern States Their
: are hundreds of farms with streams o
water of considerable size which coulC
be easily harnessed at small expens
to do the greater portion of the worl
about the farm. The cost of construct
ing and maintaining such plant woul,
be easily saved in the work performe,
and the money that is paid out ever.
year for steam threshing would almos
install the electrical apparatus.
In the great West a large number o
farmers utilize their windmills to gen
crate current for light and power
storage battery is provided to store ava
enough electricity to last day or tw
in case the wind fails In Californi
even the sun is harnessed to develo
electrical power for farm work. Hug
reflectors follow the course of the SUI
and focus the rays on boiler. TIL
steam is conveyed to a small engin
which whirls the generator. At Noble.
vile, Indiana, man has constructed
plant which is a combination of bot
wind and water power. The l4foo