THE GENESEE FAEMEli. 



Agricultural Mechanics. — Mechanical science and arts are doing more for the ad- 

 vancement of agriculture in the United States than all other agencies combined, so far as 

 immediate results are attained. Ultimately, chemistry, physiology, meteorology, geology, 

 and other departments of the natural sciences, will confer benefits on all industrial 

 pursuits far transcending any mere mechanical advantages. Indeed, the most valuable 

 mechanical powel's, even now, are more the fruits of intellectual culture than of original 

 gi-nius ; and the successful study of natural phenomena precedes nearly all important 

 inventions and discoveries. Operations that have been practiced thousands of years, 

 like those of plowing, weaving, grinding grain, and pumping or lifting water by 

 wind, are seen from an entirely new point of view by the man of science; and he is 

 able to suggest improvements that never could have occurred to a mind not illumi- 

 nated by the numerous and briUiant lights kindled by modern researches into the 

 laws of matter. 



We have been led into this train of thought and remark by perusing in the Horti- 

 cultarist the valuable article on the " Application of Wind as a Power for Raising 

 Water," from the pen of Prof. Kirtland, of Cleveland, to which the readers attention is 

 invited in this number. There is a wind-mill which has been in successful operation in 

 the federal metropolis during the last six years ; and for what we can see to the contrary, 

 may continue to work well so long as a wind shall blow up and down the valley of the 

 Potumac. The wheel we should judge to be between thirty and forty feet in diameter, 

 and it is all made of iron. One only four feet in diameter would be too small except 

 for pumping a short distance ; from six to eight feet would be a cheaper power, all things 

 considered. We should make the flanges of the wheel of galvanised sheet iron or of 

 zinc, and set them permanently at the proper angle to be acted on to advantage by the 

 current of air. By keeping the wheel always in the direct current, if it had any force, 

 the flanges would catch it, and turn the wheel, as a current water-wheel is turned in the 

 Mississippi and elsewhere. Such a wheel with the necessary shaft and crank may be 

 made of iron for a few dollars ; and everyone can understand from the^ illustrations 

 furnished by Prof. Kirtland, that this simple apparatus will work successfully whenever 

 the atmosphere has any active motion. These current wheels (they are in no sense 

 milla) and pumps, if manufactured in a large way, might be sold at prices which would 

 enable every farmer to have a score of them for irrigation, and for the^listribution of 

 liquified manure, if he saw fit to make the mechanical power of the winds create 

 wealth for himself and mankind. 



With durable and cheap machinery, vast quantities of water may be elevated to any 

 desirable height on every farm, for agricultural purposes ; and the thanks of the farming 

 community are due Prof. Kirtland for his very intelligible illustration of a simple and 

 useful wheel and crank to be put in motion by wind. The water that falls upon every 

 square foot of ground in a field is equal, on an average, in this country, to 200 lbs. a 

 year ; and so much of this as descends deep into the earth and re-appears in wells and 

 springs, always contains both the vegetable and mineral food of plants (dissolved out of 

 the soil in passing through it) in greater or smaller quantities. In rare instances such 

 water is poisoned by an excess of acids, or acid sAlts. 



On the construction and working of pumps we have a word to say : It is not neces- 

 sary to use two pum.ps nor a force pump in order to raise water forty or fifty feet, as 

 Prof K. seems to suppose. Let the stem of the pump stand twenty-five feet above the 

 water, and be connected with it by an iron pipe with a valve at the top of it. Just 

 above this the piston rod descends and works in the usual way of pumping. By 

 creating a vacuum above the twenty-five feet of iron pipe, the water is forced up twenty- 

 seven or twenty-eight feet by the weight of surrounding atmosphere, and two feet above 

 the valve in the piston rod. This rod will, of course, Hft.the column of water twenty- 

 five feet without difficulty, provided due power is applied to the lever or other geering 



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