220 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



consequently almost useless, and the building is 

 destroyed. The same is true in a great measure 

 in regard to cities. This displays the inefficiency 

 of the present system. Before the department 

 can get to work, they are powerless before a sea 

 of fire. Our engines are so large and costly, and 

 it takes so many men to handle them, who also 

 want compensation, that it is put out of the pow- 

 er of nearly all country towns to keep a sufficient 

 number to meet all emergencies. 



Taking up the second proposition, the lecturer 

 forcibly argued that the present system could 

 be made more efficient, and cheaply too. By the 

 substitution in Cambridge, for instance, — where 

 they maintain several large engines at an annual 

 expense of $11,400, and valued $20,000,— of 

 100 small engines costing $25 each, with thirty 

 feet of hosa, which would throw a three-eighths 

 inch stream upon the roof or into the windows 

 of any ordinary dwelling house, having them dis- 

 tributed in different parts of the city, they would 

 in less than one year pay for themselves by the 

 decreased losses from fire which would follow by 

 such a system. Nearly every dwelling would be in 

 the immediate neighborhood of one of these en- 

 gines, which could be worked with less than half 

 of the labor now expended upon the large ones, 

 and half a dozen of them could be upon the 

 ground in a very few minutes after the alarm 

 was given. They would also tend to lessen the 

 losses by fire, in the obstacle which they would 

 be in the wa}' of the incendiary through the ce- 

 lerity with whicli fire can be extinguished with 

 them. They would put out ten fires where a 

 large one does one. Numerous cases were cited 

 to sustain these views. 



There are more than one hundred towns in this 

 commonwealth, which arc entirely unprotected, 

 while the whole farming interest is in a helpless 

 condition in case of fire. The small engines, the 

 speaker said, had been tested, and found fully 

 competent to do all that large engines could do, 

 and more than that, would put out a fire before 

 large engines could be brought to the spot. Their 

 eflttciency has l)een witnessed by great numbers 

 of people. The lecturer's plan is to have a fire 

 department including both small and large en- 

 gines, the former to act chiefly as preventatives 

 of destructive fires, and the latter on lofty build- 

 ings and where the fire has made great headway 

 before being discovered. By the use of one small 

 engine upon the first l)reaking out of the disas- 

 trous fires which have occurred in San Francis- 

 co, millions of dollars might doul)tless have been 

 saved. 



Another argument in favor of small engines is, 

 that where a town introduces ten or twenty, the 

 citizens, witnessing their efficiency and cheap- 

 ness, will introduce otRers as a special protection 



'for their own premises — so that the number will 

 be indefinitely increased, and the chances of loss 

 by fire consequently vastly lessened. Captain 

 'Barnicoat, the late veteran chief of the Boston 

 IFire Department, had told the lecturer that he 

 considered the present engines in that city as too 

 'large, and that smaller ones would possess great 

 advantages over them. 



Another consideration urged by the lecturer 

 was, that our numerous school-houses, academies, 

 colleges, alms-houses, &c., are entirely unpro- 

 tected from sudden fire, and thus the lives of the 

 inmates are greatly hazarded. This danger could 

 be obviated by having a small engine in the 

 building. 



Upon the conclusion of the lecture, some re- 

 marks were made by Mr. TTii. Hall, Representa- 

 tive from Bradford, who commended the views 

 advanced by ]Mr. Bird, and cited cases where his 

 observation corroborated the statements made by 

 him. He also alluded to the bad moral influences 

 which cluster around the present fire system, and 

 which operate so unfavoi-ably upon the young 

 men connected with them, and lead often to in- 

 cendiarism. 



Mr. BucKMiNSTER, of the Plout/hman, suggested 

 that hogsheads of water might be kept on hand 

 in farm houses, as a precaution against fire. On 

 his own places he kept a pail of water in each 

 room in the second story, and although a simple 

 precaution, it might, notwithstanding, prove very 

 effective in an emergency. 



Mr. Darling, of Boston, made some statements 

 illustrative of the immoral character of fire com- 

 panies, under the present system. He advocated 

 the feasil^ility of using small engines, and thus 

 diminishing the number of large fire companies. 



On Tuesday evening next, the present series of 

 agricultural meetings will be brought to a close. 

 It is understood that Governor Gardner will pre- 

 side on the occasion. The subject for discussion 

 has not been announced. 



For the New England Farmer. 



WASTE OF MANUEES— MTJCK--HOPS. 



Mr. Editor : — Though a pastor, I have ever 

 endeavored to impart important instruction to 

 my people on acjrkultiire. Nor do I consider this 

 a departure from my appropriate sphere, any 

 more than when I advocate and endeavor to illus- 

 trate the importance of improvement in schools. 

 When I see my people suffering loss from exposing 

 manure to all the winds of heaven, and all "the 

 pcltings of the pitiless storm," 1 feel it my duty 

 to expostulate with them. And when I see them 

 utterly regardless of the kind provisions of Prov- 

 idence in the inexhaustible beds of what Dana 

 calls "vegetable cow- manure," abounding in this 

 section of Vermont, I cannot fiiil to charge them 

 with being recreant to the duties they owe to 

 themselves, to the community and to religion. 



The greatest mistakes of farmers in this county 



