A 60 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. [November, 
Some Improved Windmills, or Wind- 
Engines. 
In the March number of the American Agricultur¬ 
ist , pages 98-99, we discussed the value of the force 
of the wind as utilized by the Windmill or Wind- 
engine. At the same time a number of standard 
mills were presented, and their differences to some 
extent pointed out. These did not include all the 
first-class mills; in fact, we did not even mention 
the “ Halladay ” Mill, made by the U. S. Wind En¬ 
gine and Pump Co., Batavia, Ill., one of the pioneers, 
as many of our readers know, in the field of im¬ 
proved Windmills in this country. In the present 
article, without setting forth the importance of 
windmills in general—as that was given at some 
length last March—we simply wish to add to the 
list then commented, some of the mills that have 
tince come before our notice. The main feature 
in the “Halladay” Windmill is the arrangement 
of the regulatiug gear by a sliding head, so that 
when the velocity increases the sails present less 
surface to the wind. The speed of the wind-wheel 
is dependent on the velocity of the wind, and the 
angle at which it strikes the sails. In the “Halla¬ 
day ” the exposed surface is diminished without 
changing the angle, thus keeping the pressure of 
the wind equally distributed on all sides of the 
wind-wheel, avoiding strain, and at the same time 
time being self-regulating. 
Figure 1 shows this mill in position when at rest. 
When the sails are fully spread they take a radial 
position somewhat as in the wind-wheel shown in 
figure 2—that of the Eureka Mill, manufactured by 
the Kewanee Mfg. Co., New York City. This is a 
“ solid wheel ” mill, and, like all of its class, has 
certain points in its favor. It is claimed that ice 
and sleet do not interfere with their work as 
much as with the movable mills, which sometimes 
must be cleaned before they will start. It is a 
self-regulating mill, and simple in its construction. 
The “Champion ” Wind-engine is shown in figure 
3. The same company, Powell & Douglas, Wau¬ 
kegan, Ill., make'an Iron Screw Windmill; it has 
a twisted sail, and works on the same principle as a 
propeller wheel, in fact, is the “Champion,” with 
corrugated iron instead of wooden slat fans. These 
mills are self-regulating, and cun be set by the gov¬ 
erning weight to run at any desired speed. An all 
iron mill is shown in figure 4—the “Iron Duke,” 
made by O. S. Gilbert & Co., Indianapolis, Iud. 
This is a self-regulating mill, and, for the power it 
gives, is light, strong, and durable. Each of the 
mills mentioned has special points of its own, 
which are set forth at length in the circulars and 
pamphlets of the several companies, and with the 
light which these will give upon the subject, those 
desiring mills are enabled to decide which meets 
their wants the most fully. The U. S. Windmill 
Co., for example, makes 17 sizes, ranging all the 
way from that of one-man power, up to those of 
45 horse-power, employed by railroads, etc. 
Tim Bunker on Going to the Cities. 
Mr. Editor. —Your call for more “copy” comes 
right in the pinch of fall harvest, when apples are 
to be picked, corn to be cut up, pumpkiu and 
squashes gathered, rye to be got in, mangels to be 
housed, and a dozen other things to be done before 
Saturday night. This crowding a man, when he is 
already in a tight spot, is not always convenient. 
Just now the topic of discussion in Hookertown 
is the emigration of our farmers to the cities and 
villages. It has been up in the Farmer’s Club, the 
women have talked it oven in the Sewing Society, 
and Mr. Spooner has preached a sermon for the 
times in which, Seth Twiggs says, he gave “the 
oneasy critters that are itching for city life, fits.” 
It is the town talk, any way, and every body here 
wants to know what you are going to do about it. 
You see, when the “ Shadtown Herald” came 
out with the census statistics of this Common¬ 
wealth, it came upon us like a thunderbolt, that the 
farms had lost over 12,000 people, and the cities 
and villages had gained 88,000 in the last ten years. 
There were the figures in black and white, put 
down over against every town in the State, and 
there was no getting away from the ugly facts. A 
meeting of the Farmer’s Club was called right off, 
and the assembled wisdom of Hookertown freed 
its mind. Deacon Smith said he felt a good deal 
discouraged at the result, he said he had been hop¬ 
ing that the agricultural fairs, which are held now 
in every county in the State, the Farmers’ Clubs, 
which are numerous, and the greatly increased 
circulation of agricultural papers would stop this 
depopulation of the rural districts, and turn the 
tide in their favor ; but it has not been done. The 
show was worse for the farms than in any previous 
census, and he hardly knew what to make of it. 
Jake Frink said, “the Deacon need not trouble 
himself to make anything out. It was already 
made, and we might as well look the thing in the 
face. I’ve thought on’t considerable, and guess I 
see thro’ it. Laziness is at the bottom on’t you 
may depend. My Kier has gone off to the city,, 
and all his folks. Ye see he got tired o’ raisin corn 
and potatoes on the old farm and married the wid- 
der, and was off to the Whiteoaks, ’cause be¬ 
thought it was easier to swap horses, and burns 
charcoal, than to stay at home, and airn his bread 
by the sweat of his brow. It warn’t long before 
he got tuckered out with carting coal, and moved 
into Shadtown, and opened an oyster saloon. The 
business hain’t never paid and never will. Fact is, 
laziness don’t pay anywhere that I know of. We 
may change the place, but we don’t git rid of the 
pain by gwine off into the city.” 
Seth Twiggs emptied the ashes from his second 
pipe, and said, he was glad to hear so much good 
sense from his neighbor Frink. “ But I rather 
think, judging from the looks of some farms in this- 
neighborhood, there is considerable laziness that 
has not emigrated. He guessed the young men 
had been lectured too much on the use of tobacco 
and on the sin of raisin it. It was one of the few 
payin crops, and when the ministers and the dea¬ 
cons, and the moral reformers came out agin it, as. 
a crying evil, he did not wonder that some of them; 
shut up their tobacco barns, and started for tlie- 
city, where they don’t trouble themselves about a 
man’s morals, if he only paid his taxes and pew rent. 
■For his part he had always smoked ever since he 
was a boy, and tho’ it was a nasty and expensive 
habit, he thought some other things were worse. 
I’ve suffered a good deal of persecution for it, and 
some times thought I should emigrate if folks did 
n’t let me alone. My wife hetchels me by night; 
the boys hail me in the street as a walking coalpit. 
Tim Bunker always puts a pipe in my mouth when 
he writes, and Mr. Spooner preaches about ‘ fleshy 
lusts warring against the soul,’ by which he means 
me, and he might jest as well call out my name in 
meetin. I guess I shall have to go to the city my¬ 
self, where they can smoke in the streets, and in 
the cars, and nobody make a fuss about it. Fact 
is, Hookertown is gettin too narrer.” 
“Jess so,” said Geo. Washington Tucker, “It’s 
narrcrer than the edge of a knife. A feller can’t 
drink a glass of lager or a little whiskey, but what 
a smellin committee is around after him, made up 
of deacons and Dorcas Society women, who want 
to know where he got his likker, and use him as a 
witness against the poor man who is trying to get 
an honest living, by selling a little harmless beer. 
Talk about Hookertown’s being narrer, is n’t the 
State narrer ? Did n’t the legislater last session pass 
a law defining lager and other malt liquors as in¬ 
toxicating drinks ! Ye see folks won’t stand sump¬ 
tuary laws, and they are getting out of it. I’d go 
myself to-day, if I had anything to go with.” 
Mr. Spooner, who talks about as well on agricul¬ 
ture, as he does on religion, took a more cheerful 
view of the situation. He said “ the fact of a de¬ 
crease of the population in the farming districts 
was not to be disputed. It was not peculiar to 
Connecticut, but was true of all the older States, 
as far west as Ohio. The population of the farms 
Fig. 4.— THE “ IRON DUKE ” WIND ENGINE. 
were not all drawn to the cities, but to the virgin*- 
soils of the West and to the sea. Morals and. 
legislation upon questions of morals he thought 
had little, or nothing, to do with it. Our agricul- 
