1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEH. 



227 



relished by swine and cattle ; even dry, last 

 year's cobs were eaten greedily by a cow of ours ! 

 Who can account for tastes ? 



For the New England Farmer. 



MACHINES FOR PEBLING WILLOWS, 

 AND WKINGING CLOTHES. 



Perseverance ensures success. A few years 

 since, the attention of the agricultural community 

 was called to the fact that large sums of money 

 are annually sent from this to foreign countries, 

 for the purchase of the basket willow, for manu- 

 facturing the various articles of commerce known 

 as "wicker-work." 



The inquiry naturally suggested itself to the 

 Yankee mind. Why not supply this demand by 

 home production, and thus save the cash paid for 

 it for the use of our own countrymen ? Our 

 marshes and lowlands will produce the article to 

 perfection, and our ingenuity can invent machines 

 by which it can be prepared for market. 



The objection was raised, that labor is so much 

 higher here than in the old country, that we can- 

 not peel and prepare for the weaver so as to com- 

 pete with the imported article ; and to this objec- 

 tion the efficient reply was made — We can make 

 a machine that will do this, as well as other 

 things for which Yankee ingenuity is proverbial. 



As is generally the case, help came from among 

 ihe hills in the agricultural districts. On the 

 banks of the Winooski, the inventive genius of a 

 young man began to dream out a plan, by which 

 ^ machine might be made to do the work of a 

 number of men, and produce a better article than 

 those peeled by hand. The first plan, as is usu- 

 ally the case with valuable inventions, needed 

 much ingenuity to perfect it, and many and ex- 

 pensive experiments must be made, in order to 

 render it perfect. Perseverance finally ensured 

 success, and the invention is before the public. 



Finding his facilities for operating too much 

 restricted, he removed to Waterbury, where, in 

 an outlay far beyond his means, he risked his for- 

 tune, in company with a brother, and embarked 

 in an enterprise which was an entire experiment 

 in the history of "wicker-work." New efforts pre- 

 sented new hindrances, and increasing obstacles 

 in the way of successful operation only roused 

 increasing eff'orts to remove those obstacles, and 

 brought out hitherto latent powers. One after 

 another new facilities for carrying on the busi- 

 ness of raising, peeling and manufacturing all 

 kinds of willow ware in demand for the commer- 

 cial world, Avere brought into requisition. 



The question. Will it pay ? is now solved, and 

 the idea of the peeling-machine is applied to 

 another use. Those flexible rubber rollers are 

 neatly arranged, and made to press the water 

 from the washerwoman's clothes with ease and 

 rapidity. 



This little machine, so simple as to be managed 

 by a child, so cheap as to be within the means of 

 every family, costing but three dollars and fifty 

 cents, will ivriiig the clothes much drier and 

 quicker and infinitely easier than the strongest- 

 armed Irish girl, and is to be reckoned among 

 the many useful inventions for rendering kitchen 

 work easier, and the washing-day less to be 

 dreaded. Indeed, with a good washing machine, 



and "George J. Colby's Wringer," we shall 

 scarcely know when Monday comes. Washing 

 day will be as quiet as Thursday, and Monday 

 morning will not find the good, old dames "up, 

 and a good fire agoing, and the clothes on boiling 

 before one o'clock." Those good old mothers 

 will not have to "keep Saturday nights" in order 

 to put their "clothes asoak" Sunday nights. Then 

 may they rest from their labors from the beginning 

 of the Sabbath till the "red rosy light" of Mon- 

 day morning. 



Now, Mr. Editor, do not be surprised at my 

 moralizing upon the clothes-wringer, for I con- 

 scientiously believe whatever lessens the task of 

 washing day, in the same proportion will increase 

 the quiet of the "Holy Sabbath Eve" that most 

 sacred of all domestic hours. 



Lest I weary the patience of your readers, let 

 me add that this last invention has so far proved 

 that perseverance will ensure success, that funds 

 will no more be lacking. Sales of Territory have 

 already been made which place its success be- 

 yond a doubt, and Howden, Colby & Co., are yet 

 to be among the wealthy citizens of the Green 

 Mountain State. The demand already warrants 

 the manufacture of 500 per week, and when it has 

 been before the public one yeai", or until Decem- 

 ber 4, 18G1, ten times that number will not 

 supply the demand. 



Lest your readers may regard the above as a 

 puff, let me simply add that it is written by one 

 entirely disinterested in the business, without the 

 knowledge or consent of the inventor or any per- 

 son engaged in the business, and purely from a 

 desire to see the untiring eff'orts of perseverance 

 in a good cause, crowned with success. 



Vermont, Feb., 1861. P. J. 



Remarks. — The above communication has been 

 on hand several weeks, until we could make trial 

 of the wringing-machine so highly spoken of by 

 our correspondent. It is has been in use in our 

 family for three or four weeks, and our women 

 folks say there is nothing like it. It is adjusted 

 in a moment to any common tub, without the aid 

 of screws or any other contrivance, but is held 

 by the simple pressure of its parts. The clothes, 

 from a shirt to a muslin collar, are "wrung" with 

 equal ease and facility, by passing them between 

 rubber rollers. The flexibility of these rollers is 

 so great that a thin card and a common pocket- 

 knife, which we put between them side by side, 

 were held with equal firmness, and so tight that 

 we could not remove them without revolving the 

 rollers. By this machine, the clothes are not 

 toning, but pressed, so that all twisting of the 

 seams, and of the fabric of the cloth, which is so 

 injurious to thin materials, is entirely avoided, 

 and the work is done in a much better manner, 

 as well as more thoroughly than by hand. Know- 

 ing our correspondent well, we can endorse all he 

 says of his connection with the machine, and now 

 that we have made a fair trial of the machine it- 

 self, we do not regard his praise of it as anything 

 more than it well deserves. 



