16 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[.January, 
fashioned windmill is to have its day prolonged, 
and especially in the West, to become a useful 
means of economizing the vast power created 
by the currents of the atmosphere. 
The building is of a conical shape, tall aud 
narrow; tall, that it may better catch the 
breezes ; aud round, that the cap may be made 
to rotate and carry with it the arms, which may 
thus be adjusted to face the wind at all times. 
The power is gained by the spread of sail on 
the arms, and they should be 24 feet long, and 
carry a sail 16 or 18 feet long, by 6 feet wide at 
the end, gradually tapering to 3 feet at the other 
extremity. The building may be of stone, brick, 
or timber. Internally it is fitted up as any 
other grist-mill. The cap (of timber) rotates on 
wheels or rollers, and is turned so that the sails 
may face the wind as it may change, by a 
toothed wheel working in a toothed rack, simi¬ 
lar to that by which the feed of a sawmill car¬ 
riage is worked. The shaft which carries the 
four arms passes through the cap and forms the 
radius of a circle which has its center on the 
upright shaft passing downward to work the 
machinery below. A bevel -wheel on the arm 
shaft communicates the motion to another 
bevel wheel on the upright shaft, and a gudgeon 
on the end of the arm shaft is clasped by a ro¬ 
tating box, on the end of the upright shaft. A 
platform ought to run around the top of the build¬ 
ing on the outside just beneath the cap, by 
which access is gained to the sails when it is 
desired to furl or spread them. The sails are 
spread by means of ropes and pulleys in the 
simplest manner, and are furled in a moment 
when needed. They should be made of light 
duck or common sail-cloth. If our subscriber 
desires more information, we will be happy 
to furnish it. by letter on application. 
Cooking 1 Food for Stock. 
Fanners on high-priced lands need to make 
the most of their produce. Labor is higher 
year by year, and to meet all the increasing 
burdens which fall upon him the farmer is 
forced to practice greater economy. If there is 
a way to make a ton of hay, or straw, or corn 
fodder feed two head of stock in place of one, 
he must know of it, that he may adopt it as 
soon as may be. If corn is ten cents a bushel, 
and by any process he can so use it that one 
bushel is made of as great value hs two, its price 
becomes twenty cents by so using it. It is quite 
safe to say that by shelling and cooking corn 
for hogs it often becomes nearly double the 
value, in making pork, of corn fed on the cob 
direct from the crib. A greater saving still is 
made by grinding the corn whenever it is prac¬ 
ticable. The greatest saving, however, is un¬ 
doubtedly made by the cooking, and this is 
almost always practicable. Again, in feeding 
potatoes, there is a large saving made by cook¬ 
ing them, not only by means of the more diges¬ 
tible condition of the cooked food, but by get¬ 
ting rid of the large percentage of cold water 
contained in them, which when they are fed in 
Fig. 3.—WAGON FOR FEED. 
winter abstracts much heat from the animals, 
which must be restored again by increased con¬ 
sumption of food. It is not the amount of food 
we give to an animal which produces growth, 
but the amount which is digested and turned 
into flesh and fat; and by cooking grain and 
fodder we find they are rendered more digestible 
than when fed raw. The starch contained 
in grains is rendered more soluble in the 
stomach, and the cellulose of hay, corn¬ 
stalks, or straw undergoes a chemical 
change which renders it more convertible 
into nutriment. This matter has been so 
often discussed aud favorably considered 
in the American Ac/riculturist, that it is 
our intention just now to speak of the 
methods of cooking feed, rather than of 
the utility of doing it. We take that as 
confessed, and in reply to many inquiries 
“howto do it,” give the following direc¬ 
tions: The first need is a steamer or 
boiler. For general purposes, and where 
the stock to be fed do not number over 
50 head, the Prindle steamer is the best 
appliance we know of. The writer has 
used one of them in cooking feed for 24 
head, and found that it was not used to 
half its capacity. It has the additional 
merits of being useful as a simple cal¬ 
dron or boiler for other purposes, and 
of being cheap. Other steamers arc 
made by Western manufacturers which 
seem to do the work required of them in 
a satisfactory manner. The main thing is 
safety; that the steamer should be capable of 
sustaining the requisite pressure, and should be 
economical in use. If these points are secured, 
it is immaterial what particular steamer is made 
use of. The steamer should, for safety, be kept 
in a building separate from the barn,' and, if 
possible, built of such materials that it would 
Fig. 2.— OLD-STYLE WINDMILL. 
not take lire, or at least, if it should do so, that 
it would not endanger the barn or other build¬ 
ings. An open shed that could be thrown down 
readily is preferable to a wooden closed build- 
Fig. 1.— CHEST FOR STEAMING FEED. 
ing; a brick building with slate roof is prefer¬ 
able to any other, and a spark-arrester or wire- 
gauze’ cap should always be placed over the 
furnace-pipe. From the steamer an iron pipe 
conveys the steam to the feed-room in the barn. 
This pipe, if it is carried more than 100 feet, 
should be buried a few inches beneath the 
ground in a "wooden trough, and packed around 
with dry ashes, or wrapped in old woolen rags, 
or some non-conducting material which will 
prevent loss of heat. The pipe enters the 
steam-chest, shown at fig. 1, and passes once 
around it, on the inside, at about a foot from the 
bottom. The pipe inside of the chest is pierced 
with numerous small holes for the escape of the 
steam, and by this means it is completely dif¬ 
fused throughout the mass of feed in the chest. 
A valve in the pipe just, outside of the chest 
shuts off the steam or lets it on when required. 
The steam-chest is made of plank, joined by 
tongue-and-groove joints as closely as possible, 
aud is strengthened by bands of hoop-iron 
passed around it. It is elevated about a foot 
from the floor for convenience, aud is provided 
Fig. 2.—POSITION OF CUTTER AND STEAM-CHEST. 
with a bench in front from which the feed is re¬ 
moved. It has a door at the bottom for the 
removal of the prepared feed, and one at the 
top whereby the cut fodder is introduced. 
These doors are fitted closely, and are kept in 
place when closed by a wooden bar fitting in 
staples, as shown in the figure. The. cutting- 
