118 
American Implements, and 
Now, suppose we compare tliis application of power with that 
of a horse in the ol(j-fas!iioned lever-mill: in this railway horse- 
power we have seen tliat the speed is directly applied to the axle 
of the band-wheel ; in the old-fashioned mill, on the contrary, 
the horse walks a circle of 18 or 20 yards in order to give one 
revolution to the axle, and this loss of speed has to be recovered 
by a complicated system of cog-wheels and gearing. Besides, a 
horse walking in a mill pulls, not at right angles to the pole 
(which forms the radius of the circle), but within the right angle, 
which involves a loss of power in proportion to his thus dimi- 
nished distance from the centre of motion ; the lost power being 
mischievously exerted in pressure on the centre, and consequent 
increase of friction. 
The well-known economy of these "railway horse-powers" 
has caused them quite to supersede the old lever ones on the 
200 or 300 acre farms of the Northern States ; but on the large 
plantations of the Southern, and the great Prairie estates of the 
Western districts, the lever-powers, admitting as they do of the 
application of the entire force of the farm, are still used for 
threshing. The capacity of these " powers " is stated to be 
about 175 bushels of wheat a day threshed and winnowed, at a 
cost of less than 2^d. a bushel. 1 have reduced the dollars and 
cents to English money : — 
Estimate per day of 10 hours. 
2 horses, at 2s. each . . . . - . . = 4s. Od. 
4 hands, at 3s. each = 12 0 
Boarding men and liorses .. .. 9 0 
Cleaning up , .. 3 6 
28s. 6d!. 
This is the price at which travelling machines will contract to 
thresh and winnow ; and, if the farmer has his own machine, the 
cost is, of course, less. It compares very favourably with the 
contracts for threshing with itinerant steam-engines in England. 
The cost of these machines is : — 
J)oU8. £. J. 
For a 2-horse power IIG = 25 0 
„ 1-horse „ 8.5 = 17 14 
„ dog or sheep power .. .. 15 = 3 0 
„ 2-liorse power with tla-esber) = 34 q 
and winnower ) "~ 
There are but few farmers in the Northern States that do not 
possess one of these " powers," and use it for the various pur- 
poses of sawing up wood, threshing and cleaning grain, grinding, 
the Society's consulting engineer, showing the tluty done by this and the or- 
dinary lever horse-power, when worked undei precisely similar circiimstauces. — 
H. S. Thompson. 
