776 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



HOME MADE WINDMILLS. 



The above is the title of a bulletin issued by 

 the Agricultural Experiment Station of Ne- 

 braska; or, rather, the title is, "The Home 

 made windmills of Nebraska." It is a book 

 of 78 pages, including a great many beautiful 

 illustrations. Although I am greatly interest- 

 ed in almost all publications from our experi- 

 ment stations all over the United States, I do 

 not think I ever saw any thing that took hold 

 of me as does this one. Why, the book should 

 be worth thousands of dollars to the farmers 

 in every State in the Union. I can well con- 

 ceive how a single copy may be worth hun- 

 dreds of dollars in just one neighborhood by 

 being passed around from farmer to farmer. 

 Perhaps I am over-enthusiastic ; but let me 

 tell you what I know about this business. 

 When I was a boy of fourteen or fifteen I 

 made a windmill that did the churning, and 

 did it nicely. It would have pumped water if 

 we had had a pump. In my travels I have 

 seen a great number of these cheap mills do- 

 ing excellent work In South Dakota there 

 are hundreds of them. The book gives pic- 

 tures of mills in actual operation, and tells 

 where they are located, and also what it cost 

 to make them. And, by the way, there is an 

 important point right here. In talking with 

 young farmers, especially those who are just 

 making a start in fruit-growing and garden- 

 ing, how often we hear the lament, "Yes, I 

 know it would save me lots of time and lots 

 of muscle if I had a cheap windmill to do our 

 pumping ; but there are so many other wants 

 I really can not afford it. There is a mort- 

 gage on my farm ; and although there are 

 many different ways in which we could be 

 greatly helped by the expenditure of a little 

 money, I do not dare to go into it till the 

 mortgage is paid off. " The above I hear again 

 and again ; and I think the young wife and 

 husband are right in keeping down expenses. 

 But, dear fritnds, this bulletin tells how you 

 can make a windmill that will do a pile of 

 work for you, without costing hardly a cent 

 of cash outlay. There is hardly a farmer but 

 has time stormy days, or during winter, to 

 make a windmill ; and with regard to the ma- 

 terial, let me quote a part of one chapter from 

 the book : 



THE JUMBO WINDMILL. 



The Jumbo mill, or Go-devil, as some call it. is very 

 much like an old-fashioned overshot waterwheel. It 

 is simply a sort of overshot windwheel. 



We have taken the liberty of putting it in the lowest 

 group of mills, where it probably belongs, although 

 in talking with their owners it is plain that thev de- 

 fend these mills, and would put them in a higher 

 class, all of which speaks well for this simple and 

 useful mill. However, as a matter of fact they are 

 probably the least efficient type. 



This much must be said, that they lend themselves 

 readily to construction, being very simple in design. 

 Furthermore, almost any kind of material may enter 

 into their make-up, so they are economical. We have 

 seen old lumber, lath, shingles, split rails, old pack 

 ing-hoxes, barrel-staves, coffee-sacks, and even the tin 

 from old tin roofs, pressed into service in the con- 

 struction of these mills. We even found the tin can 

 doing service in this capacity, for one farmer living 

 neai a small town found hundreds of old tomatr-cans 

 in the dump near his place. Raking these into a heap, 

 and coveting the same with straw, which was burned 

 so as to unsolder the (ops. bottoms, and sides of the 

 cans, this farmer found himself with several hundred 



pieces of tin which he nailed to the loose sides of his 

 Jumbo box. This wa> counted an interesting case ; 

 and others might be cited, but this is quite enough to 

 verify the statement that these mills can be construct- 

 ed largely of old or even of waste material such as is 

 common to almost any farm. If the Jumbo can not 

 be built cheaply, and by one's own labor, it were bet- 

 ter not built at all. This is not literally true, for any 

 mill is better than no mill, but some other form of 

 mill could be chosen to advantage. 



The Jumbo mill can be used advantageously, as is 

 illustrated by its practical operation all over the State, 

 to pump water for the hou'e, or for the stock, or for 

 the irrigation of small patches of orchard or garden. 

 For the irrigation of large tracts it may not amount 

 to much ; but touching this point it may be well to 

 remember that if one small Jumbo can irrigate 

 a small patch, several large Jumbos could irrigate a 

 much larger one. 



We have seen the Jumbos varying in size and 

 strength from those at work pumping water for the 

 irrigation of the garden of a town lot up to those 

 which were irrigating ten acres of orchard. If this 

 much is already possible, more is to be expected. 

 Several Jumbos, if well built, would do not a little 

 service in field irrigation, especially if the water were 

 first pumped into a storage reservoir, and thence into 

 the furrows. And its usefulness might be still further 

 enhanced by using it steadily during the fall and win- 

 ter in order to get the ground well soaked. 



I suppose this windmill bulletin is sent free 

 of charge to every applicant in Nebraska; but 

 I can not learn anywhere from the bulletin 

 how people living in other States can get it. 

 You had better send a postal card to the U. S. 

 Agricultural Station, Lincoln, Neb., and they 

 will tell you how to get it. 



The book is doubly interesting to me in that 

 it offers nothing for sale. The author is Erwin 

 H. Barbour. He has traveled miles and miles 

 just to see these home-made windmills, and a 

 lot of money has been expended in getting up 

 the book. I do think the Department at 

 Washington should have this book reprinted, 

 and spread gratuitously all over Uncle Sam's 

 domain. It is a grand object-lesson for the 

 boys. It tells not only what can be done in 

 the way of utilizing wind power, but it also 

 gives wise instruction as to what can not be 

 done. I wish to express my thanks to Mr. 

 Barbour for the grand work he has done so 

 well, and I wish to take off my hat and make 

 my best bow to the whole State of Nebraska. 



Perhaps I might add that I knew our Ne- 

 braska friends were at work on this bulletin ; 

 in fact, it has been my privilege to talk the 

 matter over and urge upon them the impor- 

 tance of it. Where a man's time is all occu- 

 pied, and he is getting good or fair wages, 

 very likely his best way is to buy a windmill 

 made at a factory. But farmers and others 

 who have spare time during stormy weather, 

 and a limited amount of cash, should by all 

 means have some sort of windmill to pump 

 water and do lots of work around the house. 



The severe frost on the morning of 



OCT. 1, ETC. 

 I said in our last issue that we were getting 

 \y 2 cents per lb. for Concord grapes. Before 

 half of them were sold, however, the price 

 went up to 2 and then to 1% cents, and we got 

 the latter figure for a large part of them. Aft- 

 er the severe and killing frost on the morning 

 of Oct. 1, the price went up still more ; and, 

 by the way, I do not know that I remember a 

 season before when the first frost, hard enough 



