The farmer and mechanic., 1915-03-02
THOUSANDS OF HORSE POWER
ON STATES LITTLE STREAMS
some Of Them Have Already Been t1itched Up and Are
Doing Jobs-~Almost Any Township In North Carolina
Can Have Its Home Raised Power If 1t W. 1t

1T Vass and Upchurch at Raeford
had been saw mill men before they
built cot m mills, and they viewed
with alarm the check book stubs that
had wood" marked on the line that
says what for Cameron got a
strangle hold on Little River. and Up
church dropped several thousand dol
lars in Rockfish creek. Then one day
a man pulled down big black handle
on d shiny brass affair on the wall,
and the engine at the Vass mill stop
ped and q little shrek Of a pulley and
q whirr of belts and the mill was
running with electric power from
little stream down in Hoke county.
More recently Upchurch beat a path
down from Raeford to Roci1tish creek
some miles below town, and Helms
came up the path setting poles and
stringing wires, and the first thing the
folks knew around town the cotton
mill was getting along with mighty
little wood. Little river is q Jakey
little stream that starts out from some
springs a few miles above Lakeview.
BY the time one OF the spring runs is
three or four miles long it has been
hooked up to run some little electric
plant. Before it is big enough to de-
serve the name OF Little river it is
| turning several wheels, and when any
body tells you that the mill will never
| turn with the water that is passed tell
| him that old things have passed away.
| The mill al Vass turns with water
| that passed two or three hours or
| more ago. And after the water turns
| the wheels for one outfit 1t jumps
| right into another job for another
! set
This Little river stream is develop
ing several hundred horsepower. The
big dam that Upchurch has built on
| Rockiish creek runs up toward the
| thousand mark The unsupported
power of the little streams Of Hoke
county is worth the attention Of the
whole State. 1t is only a little dis
tance across the country to the Buck
horn Falls development, or to the
BleWitt Falls development and power
wires from one Of the big concerns
cross Moore county from one side te
the other But the little streams dowr
this way serve the purposes, and 1t Is
not necessary to draw on the DIG
. power companies except for the sim
pie convenience of it. We have awak
ened to the fact that North Caroline
has a lot of big electric power oppor
tunities. We are just beginning t.
realize that for local uses the State
; has an abundance of little power op
portunities that will provide what i
!, needed for small industries and TO
small units of consumption, and tha
I | the little sources of power are suth
. cient in the aggregate to make Nortl
Carolina a great electrical State ever
: if the big powers were overlooke'
completely.
= Streams Duplicated Everywhere.
S The little streams that are availabl
\ here in these counties have duplicate
J. all over the State. A few Of tn
t lower counties are too fiat for muc
G fall, but with that exception Mort
[ Carolina can provide thousands Q
r horsepower on the little streams, an
s the limit of that power nobody can es
e innate yet. One Of these days if yo
t live long enough you are going t
r see a lot of these little streams hjtche
= up, and they will be doing all sort
It Of jobs. Out in the western mountai
n country thousands Of miles Of raj
It roads are equipping for electric hau
{, age Don't you imagine electric hau
q age is coming pretty soon in Mort
It Carolina where Water-pOWer IS S
q | abundant that almost any townshi
X in three-fourths Of the State can HAY
it's home-raised power? Don't yo
imagine before long all the lit
II towns will be turning their mes
sc grinders with electric motors? 1t
l. so much cheaper to have runnir
ii water furnish us power so that il
TT stead of turning the meat chopper /
~ hand we can be doing something Ell:
n while the motor is turning the chol
/ ping machine. Whether We incliI
8. to the electric power or not it Is con
to ing, just as the sewing machine ar
III 1.-The moving machine and all the 9TH
is labor savers came.
n There is just one way to 1oreea