UNDEVELOPED SOURCES OF POWER. 285 



fall say Niagara or Minnehaha so that it may be 

 expended and utilized at a distance of miles from its 

 source, impelling machinery of all kinds at half 

 the cost of steam. I know vaguely of what is being 

 done with Electricity, with an eye to its employ- 

 ment in the production of power, by means of en- 

 ginery not a tenth so weighty and cumbrous as that 

 required for the generation and utilization of Steam, 

 and by means of a consumption (that is, transforma- 

 tion) of materials not a hundredth part so bulky and 

 heavy as the water and steam which fill the boilers 

 of our factories and locomotives. I am no mechan- 

 ician, and will not even guess from what source, 

 through what agencies, the new power will be vouch- 

 safed us which is in time to pulverize our fields to 

 any required depth with a rapidity, perfection, and 

 economy, not now anticipated by the great body of 

 our farmers. But my faith in its achievement is un- 

 doubtiug ; and, though I may not live to see it, I 

 predict that there are readers of this essay who will 

 find the forces abundantly generated all around us by 

 the spontaneous movement of Wind, Water, and 

 Electricity one or more, and probably by all of 

 them so utilized and wielded as to lighten immensely 

 the farmer's labor, while quadrupling its eificiency 

 in producing all by which our Earth ministers to the 

 sustenance and comfort of man. 



