380 
AMERICAN AG-RECULTURIST. 
[October, 
A House, Barn, or Shop Elevator. 
An elevator may be made the means of saving 
much labor and many weary steps up and down 
stairs. To fit one into a house, barn, or workshop, 
is very little trouble. A well needs to be cut out 
and boarded up. Suspension pulleys are fixed in a 
strong beam at the top, 
and guiding pulleys to 
carry the rope at the bot¬ 
tom. These are shown at 
figure 1 in the accompany¬ 
ing illustrations. A box, 
or closet, without a front, 
is made to fit the well 
loosely, and with guiding 
rollers of rubber fixed in 
springs (figure 2), to pre¬ 
vent noisy rattling as it is 
drawn up or down. The 
weight of the box is bal¬ 
anced by means of a plate 
of cart iron huug over a 
pulley at the top, and 
which slides up and down 
in wooden grooves made for the purpose (fig.3). For 
light weights, such as are usual indwelling houses, 
no mechanical aids for hoisting are needed ; but in 
workshops or barns, where heavier loads are to be 
raised, a hoisting-w'heel and endless-rope should be 
provided as shown at figure 4. The elevator-rope 
is wound upon the axle, and the hoisting wheel 
should be somewhat larger than the elevator box, 
for convenience in working the wheel rope. 
GUIDING PULLEYS. 
i Among the Farmers.—No. 45. 
BY ONE OF THEM. 
It is not often that business or pleasure takes me 
so far from home now r -a-days as an errand I had, 
just after writing my last letter to the American 
Agriculturist, which necessitated a trip to Ken¬ 
tucky. It is often pleasant in travelling to pass 
over unfamiliar sections of country, and so I went 
Through Western Pennsylvania 
Fig. 2. 
planning to have daylight after passing Harrisburg, 
going to Pittsburgh by the Central Railroad. I had 
no reason to be disappointed in the ap¬ 
pearance of the country — the lack of 
thrift, the wide-spread wilderness, the few 
evidences of good farming, good crops, 
good cattle, or even good houses—for it 
is a section about which we kDow little, 
simply because there is little to know. 
Yet the lack, to a New England man 
(though a Pennsylvanian born), does not 
seem to be in the soil, and I do not believe 
it is in the people, but in the concatenation 
of circumstances. I suggest this partly be¬ 
cause I would not hurt anybody’s feelings, 
far all admit we are creatures of circumstances, and 
partly because I think the people of any section can 
make their own circumstances if they have a mind 
to. I had little time for the wonders of Pittsburgh. 
Here Pennsylvanian energy, industry, and genius 
shows itself, and when the new smoke-consuming 
process is fairly introduced, 
it will be a grief to many 
lhat they did not see this 
city of iron, and glass, and 
cinders, enveloped in its 
sombre mantle, which is 
verily supported by pillars 
of cloud by day and of fire 
by night. That time is sure¬ 
ly coming, and then only the 
coke furnaces in the sur¬ 
rounding country will give 
an indication of the grand 
smokiness which ever lies 
upon the city. Notwithstand¬ 
ing the clatter and hum, and 
the all-pervading presence of industry , everybody 
seemed to feel as if Pittsburgh was only the closed 
and temporarily tranquil crater of a volcano, ready 
at any favorable moment to burst into activity, 
subvert law and order, and again give up the prop¬ 
erty and lives of its citizens to a ravening mob, 
3.— THE WOODEN 
GROOVES. 
which may rule or ruin fora week. The reason is 
that the public men are trimmers, and the Courts 
and the Legislature are afraid of the votes of the 
mob. It is high time that the farmers looked to 
the honor and reputation of their State. 
I never saw before the spot where the Alleghany 
and Monongahela, the one clear and the other 
muddy, mingle their waters and form the noble 
Ohio, the very meution of which suggests steam¬ 
boats. It is a matter of never-ceasing wonder 
what all the steamboats find to do. On the Western 
rivers there seems to be a commerce like that upon 
the ocean, and it is so all the way from Pittsburgh 
and St. Paul—and 1 don’t know how far up the 
Missouri—down to New Orleans. One is fairly con¬ 
fused by the number of steamboats. They have, 
too, a way of huddling, very different from boats 
at the East, where we have permanent docks. They 
remind one of bevys of school girls with their 
arms around one another’s necks. 
To pass across the Virginia “ pan-handle,” and 
through Central Ohio to Cincinnati, was a more 
than all-night’s ride. I had not been here since the 
Tyler-Davidson monument was erected,and wasvery 
much impressed by it, and wonder if it has ever been 
described in the American Agriculturist. Let me brief¬ 
ly say—it represents a benign, angelic form, stand¬ 
ing upon a lofty pedestal, with outstretched hands, 
wide apart, from each of which falls a constant and 
gentle sliowerof rain drops. 
The pedestal rises out of a 
basin of water. Grouped 
around and near the base of 
the pedestal are various fig¬ 
ures or groups. One repre¬ 
sents a fireman, another a 
maiden giving a cup of wa¬ 
ter to an old man, another 
a mother and group of chil¬ 
dren stepping down to take 
a bath ; but by far the most 
touching is that of a farmer 
standing, as it were, among 
implements for which we 
may suppose he has no use 
on account of the drouth— 
with outstretched hands 
and upturned face, receiv¬ 
ing upon them the blessed 
rain. Tiiere is a prayer and 
a poem in that man’s face— 
gratitude to the All-giver; 4—noisTiNG wheel 
relief from despondency if AND endless rope. 
not despair, and hope for 
the future. How many farmers have gone through 
this experience ? Still the rain comes down at the 
fountain, and Lhere the thirsty go to drink. And 
after all, what a poor showing it is to represent the 
blessings of the rain. We cannot see in the bronze 
the clover heads draw up, the corn leaves ex¬ 
pand, the sward grow verdant. The ducks do not 
shake the drops from their feathers, and manifest 
their wild delight, and we do not witness parched 
and wilted nature revive and worship. Neverthe¬ 
less, it is a grand work of art, bearing the relation, 
of course, that art always must to nature. A 
poem in bronze, which will stand teaching its 
lessons of purity and gratitude, turning the 
thoughts of thousands to the source of all our 
blessings, perhaps, for a thousand years. 
From Ohio to Kentucky 
is a great change. The street car carries you across 
upon a few wires, stretched from one side of the 
river to the other, letting your peer down into the 
funnels of the steamers as you pass. Every thin' 
looks unthrifty. The depot wretched, the peope 
slouchy, negroes abundant. What reason there is 
for any such difference I can only imagine. Taxes 
are probably fully fifty per cent lower. Means of 
communication just the same. We go through a 
poor country for many miles as we follow up the 
course of the Licking River until we leave it, run¬ 
ning towards Cyuthiana, and enter 
The Famous Blue-Grass Regdor. 
My errand, so far as my trip into Kentucky was 
concerned, took me to Paris, Millersburg, Lexing¬ 
ton, and Frankfort, and 1 had little time to visit 
the famous farms and herds, or study the agricul¬ 
ture. Still, there was much to be seen, and I was 
impressed by it as one of the best farming regions- 
I ever visited. The fine, ciayey, calcareous soil! 
produces most excellent pasturage for ten months: 
of the year, giving abundant feed for the cattle. Ini 
fact the cattle pasture throughout the year, but 
provision has to be made for extra feed for two or 
three months. Near Paris the weather has been 
very dry, and the hill sides were so brown and’ 
dried that I was surprised to see the cattle browsing 
all over them, and at evening the cows came home 
with full udders, sleek and fine, as if they had 
lacked nothing ; and the yearling mules and colts - 
looked as big as two-year-olds, though they had 
been fed only a little corn, perhaps, for a short 
time in winter. 
The com fields looked very well, many of them 
exceedingly even. Yet the whole manuring con¬ 
sisted of turning under a Blue-Grass sod. The 
spring was cold and wet, and much corn had to be - 
replanted, consequently fully half the crop was no 
farther advaueed than with us, yet there seemed to 
to be no doubt about its ripening before frosts. 
Such a wheat crop as had just been harvested 
was hardly ever known before. Railroad store¬ 
houses were filled up with it, and every freight car 
pressed into use to get it to market. The farmers 
were feeling very happy over both the crop and the 
prices. Where manure is used at all it is used for 
the wheat crop, but I inferred that little is saved 
and little used for any purpose. 
This region is peculiarly adapted to grazing, and 
the numerous herds of Shorthorns showed a size 
and evenness which we rarely see at the East. I 
saw some excellent Jerseys, too. The Blue-Grass 
does as well for them as for the beef breeds. Mr. 
MeClintock’s Jerseys, at Millersburg, looked ex¬ 
ceedingly well, and yielded well, but the small but 
choice herd of Mr. Frank Chinn, of Frankfort, was 
a surprise. He has some excellent cows of the 
stock of Mr. Hoyt, of Patterson, N. Y., among which 
a two-year-old heifer of his own breeding is yielding 
4 gallons of milk a day, which is certainly remark¬ 
able, though her dam is a 20-quart cow. At one of 
Fowler’s sales, in Philadelphia, Mr. Chinn bought a 
very pretty cow, for which, considering that she 
was much used up by the voyage, and that many 
people thought she would never be any better, he 
paid a high price. She is now well, giving a great 
mess of mlk, which is very rich, and the cow her¬ 
self one o'. the most beautiful Jerseys 1 ever saw. 
Kentucky as a Dairy State. 
This portion of Kentucky seems to be particu¬ 
larly adapted to dairying. Communication with 
the greit markets is very easy. The winters are so 
mild hat grass-butter, yellow without coloring, 
couldoe produced the year round. Cool springs, 
abouid—at least, occur not infrequently. Ice is 
gene ally formed in sufficient quantities for home 
consumption, and is otherwise very easily obtained, 
eitler by water or by rail; I found the greatest 
abindance of it everywhere, and noticed that it 
wrs used without stint. 
Blue-Grass seems to be the prevailing grass: 
it crowds out almost everything else, and forms. 
£ close sod, such as we rarely see at the East,, 
except where a variety of grasses are growing, 
together. This grass is no doubt very fattening, as- 
is demonstrated by the Ohio and Kentucky cattle, 
1 which are fed and may be fattened upon it without a. 
bite of grain ; and it may be a question whether it is 
equally good for butter production.—That it is, is in 
part practically demonstrated by the Jersey breed¬ 
ers of Kentucky, whose butter certainly is excel¬ 
lent, and produced abundantly. Still there was a 
suspicion in my mind that the Jerseys carried too 
much flesh, and that those bred on the Blue-Grass, 
showed a faulty tendency to beefiness. This may 
not be, and it is not fatal to butter or milk produc¬ 
tion. No doubt there are many individual cows, I 
have known several such, which, though excellent 
feeders, could not be kept in fair flesh while milk¬ 
ing, but ran down on the best feed to mere racks 
of bones. This is the style of cow for the Blue- 
Grasn region, but they have got to be bred, and such 
a breed would be invaluable anywhere. 
I have assumed that the Blue-Grass sward was 
