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ROCHESTER, N. Y.-SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1855, 
{WHOLE NO. m 
raking after the cart, would have paid for the 
rake in five years. The item of expenditure, 
but perhaps more the hostility to innovation, 
prevented him from expending ten dollars and 
thereby saving hundreds. 
One of the necessary results of intelligence, 
and a cultivation of the mind among the mass 
of men, is the invention of labor-saving ma¬ 
chines, whereby one man can perform the 
work of hundreds; and of late years the de¬ 
partment of agriculture is receiving its full 
share of the benefits of inventive genius. It 
is the duty of the agriculturist to encourage 
these efforts, by co-operating heartily with in- j 
With this brief reiteration in regard to our 
j position, we subjoin the report of one of our 
associates, who participated in the delibera¬ 
tions and discussions of the recent Annual 
Meeting. In most of the views expressed we 
concur, for we are not quite so radical as has 
been reported,—yet must dissent from the 
opinion expressed relative to the popularity of 
the Society with the farmers of the State. 
Were it so highly esteemed by the farmers, it 
stiikes us that its interests would not require 
the special attention of such political engines 
the first cut shows a contrivance for pump¬ 
ing water, figured in Thomas’ “ Farm Imple¬ 
ments.” A is the circular wind-mill with a 
number of sails set obliquely to the direction 
of the wind, and always kept facing it by 
means of the vane B. The crank of the 
wind-mill, during its revolutions, works the 
pump rod I, and raises the water from the well 
beneath. In whatever direction the wind may 
A QUARTO WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY, & FAMILY JOURNAL. 
I residents back upon the Executive Com- 
mittee. They have been Presidents, and as 
such have been five years members of the 
Executive Committee, and we think that is 
quite enough for them, and all that should be 
asked of them. Neither Mr. Vail nor Judge 
A an Bergen, both good men, to be sure, have 
any claim to be placed upon that Committee, 
and ought not to have been. We don’t believe 
that because a man happens to be largely 
interested in breeding choice stock, or has in¬ 
timate friends who are so engaged, is for that 
reason any better fitted to manage the affairs 
of the Society than a man engaged in other 
pui suits, which will not enable him to compete 
for or carry off the premiums of the Society. | 
| It is true he may help enlarge the premium 
list in certain branches where his interest is 
the largest, but to our mind that is not a pre¬ 
requisite. Ihe fact that some men who are 
largely engaged in stock breeding being 
always found active managers in the Executive 
Committee, has done more than any thing else 
to give a bad feeling in the country against 
the management of the Society. From per¬ 
sonal intercourse with these men for many 
years, we can bear cheerful testimony to their 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
ECONOMY" IN FARM IMPLEMENTS. 
As it is in other business, so it is in farm¬ 
ing, that true economy does not always consist 
in a niggardly expenditure. The rapid im¬ 
provements made in the mechanic arts, in the 
mufacturing department for instance, 
A many a corporation to throw out 
w'orth of machinery be- 
-- i purpose of 
introducing " ' 
terns. Enormous as was the sacrifice, it 
blow the pump will continue working. The 
pump rod, to work steadily, must be imme¬ 
diately under the iron rod on which the vane 
turns. If the diameter of the wind-mill is 
four feet, it will set the pump in motion even 
with a light breeze, and with a brisk wind will 
perform the labor of a man. Such a machine 
will pump the water needed by a large herd of 
cattle, and it may be placed on the top of a 
barn, with a covering, to which may be given 
the architectural effect of a tower or cupola, 
as shown in the figure above. 
A more compact machine, but of more 
complex construction, is shown in the engrav¬ 
ing beiofo, where the up'per circle moves around 
with the wheel and vane on the fixed lower 
circle, to which it is strongly secured so as to 
admit of turning freely. In other respects it 
is similar to the preceding. 
cotton mai 
has induced 
fifty thousand dollars 
fore it was half worn out, for the 
new processes and improved pat- 
-t was 
economy to make it, inasmuch as the old 
modes involved such an expenditure of time 
and labor, that manufacturing in that way 
would be done at a loss beside new mills run¬ 
ning on the improved plans. Formerly the 
bleaching of cotton goods in England was 
effected by spreading them on meadow lands, 
and exposing them to the united action of 
light and moisture; but at this day all the 
meadow lands of England would not be suffi¬ 
cient for the purpose. 
What is true in the cotton manufacture, is 
true in all other departments of the mechanic 
arts, and in agriculture. These arts have at 
tins day become the hand-maidens of agricul¬ 
ture, and a man, to farm it economically and 
judiciously, ought to have no inconsiderable 
amount of mechanical and constructive skill. 
When the plow consisted simply of a forked 
stick fastened by thongs of leather to the 
horns of a pair of bullocks, an ignorant hind 
who knew nothing beyond holding on to the 
single handle, and following the scratch made 
in the soil, was sufficient for the task of the 
plowman. When the rude reaping-hook, of 
capacity to cut at a stroke only a single hand¬ 
ful of grain, was the most complicated imple¬ 
ment used in securing the harvest, a peasant 
girl would answer to perform the labor; but 
now that the gang-plow, the cultivator, the 
auu au me parapnernalia of an 
expensive luxury; but farm implements of 
approved patterns, in all the departments of 
agriculture to which he turns his attention, are 
among the economies of his calling. He is 
( blind to his own interest who uses an imple¬ 
ment e-fen but half worn out, when an im¬ 
proved pattern is altogether'preferable. How 
would a cotton manufacturer thrive to-day, if 
he were to pick over the raw material by hand, 
employ a thousand girls to twirl each a single 
spindle, and stout-fisted men to drive the lathe 
and shuttle l Starvation and ruin would come 
upon them all in a month, and grass would 
soon grow in the streets of such a manufactur¬ 
ing city. The same process of reasoning will 
apply to the agricultural interests. The farmer 
of fifty years ago will not prosper as the far¬ 
mer of to-day, unless he adapt himself to the 
times, and adopt the improvements of the age. 
An abundant supply of the best agricultural J 
implements, well used in the proper season, and 
well housed and secured out of it, is a certain 
indication of prosperity. 
THE late meeting of the n. y. state 
AGRICULTURAL SOCITEY. 
Our last number contained two articles re¬ 
lative to the N. Y. State Ag. Society—one 
written before the proceedings of the recent 
Annual Meeting had transpired, and the other 
subsequently, and embracing a synopsis of 
those proceedings. Both were written from a 
conviction of duty to the farmers of the State. 
And if they at all expressed what we intended 
to convey, no one could mistake our decided 
conviction and opinion concerning the waning 
popularity of the Society, and the consequent 
necessity of reform in its management. While 
penning the first we indulged a faint hope that 
some steps would be taken at the meeting then 
in session, to restore the Society to its former 
prosperity and popularity. The other was 
hastily written, with the painful truth before 
us that the Society had taken a step backward 
in reform, and exhibited, more than ever before, 
the e\ idence of central influence and conser¬ 
vatism. We were not a little surprised that 
Ex-Presidents of the Society should be chosen 
among the new officers, while a large portion 
not see them as we do. Seeing things from a 
different point they judge differently, and some¬ 
thing is sometimes due to appearances. 
While it is true that the treasury of the 
Society shows that its funds have melted away 
until it is nothing but an empty box, yet it is 
by no means true that these funds have been 
altogether wastefully squandered. There is 
room for economy. We think too much is 
paid for the Secretary and his office, as there 
has been over S2,500 a year paid to him and 
his clerk. We are a believer in the doctrine 
that the laborer is worthy of his hire, and we 
are satisfied with the Colonel, but still we 
don’t believe it’s the province or duty of the 
Society to pay his traveling expenses to other 
States. But it must be borne in mind that 
the Society has already a very creditable libra¬ 
ry, and that some part of its lost funds have 
gone there. 
I he Society is neither dying nor going to 
die. It was never stronger in the hearts of 
all the farmers than at this hour. At times it 
may want a little overlooking, an infusion of 
new blood, and a sharp look out for its best 
interests, but it will go on prosperous and 
prospering, for many, very many, long years 
yet. Whatever the farmers will to do, that 
can and will be done. We commend it to 
their care, and trust our next Annual Show 
will be better in all respects than any one 
before it.—p. 
vnat me nine will come 
when he must leave, and he does not believe 
that when he dies, (may it be a long time 
hence,) the Society will die with him. Still 
there were good reasons why he should not be 
put aside at this meeting. 
On Wednesday, the day of the election, it 
was evident that Young America could not 
come up to time. The list of new members 
w as filling up rapidly, but it was by men who 
did not belong to the rural districts. Albany 
was very creditably represented, as it should be. 
The question of a permanent location, we 
think, was very properly decided in the nega¬ 
tive. It may be that the time will come 
when such a measure will be desirable, but to 
our mind it is not now. The moment a per¬ 
manent location is carried out, the State will 
become sectional, and other shows will be held 
for districts remote from the favored one, 
which will materially diminish the interest that 
“ 1° a11 wind-mills,” says the work above 
referred to, <! it is important that the sails 
should have the right degree of declination to 
the direction of the wind. If they were to 
remain motionless, the angle would be different 
from that in practice. They should more 
nearly face the wind; and as the ends of the 
sails sweep round through a greater distance 
and fastei, they should present a flatter surface 
than the parts nearer the centre. The sails 
should, therefore, have a twist given them, so 
that the parts nearest the centre may form’an 
ordinary repairs and adjustments, is necessary 
for the successful operator. 
A hand-rake costs but a shilling, wdiile a 
horse-rake costs ten or fifteen dollars; but will 
any person pretend to say it is economy to re¬ 
ject the latter, and to retain the former ? Any 
man can cut a crotched stick in his own forest, 
(if he have a forest,) while a first-class plow 
costs seven to ten dollars ; yet who but a 
Mexican or a savage, would maintain the su¬ 
periority of the former on the score of econo¬ 
my ? We are not prepared to say that it 
would be economical for every small farmer to 
purchase a grain-harvester, a threshing-mill, or 
a horse-power; but it certainly would be so 
for many large farmers who have neither ; and 
it might not be a bad investment for two or 
more of the former class, who can agree to¬ 
gether to own them in company. We knew 
a man who farmed it for years, and cut from 
ten to twenty acres of grass on as smooth a 
meadow as one could wish to see, and secured 
it by hand, rather than go to the expense of 
buying a horse-rake. He shut his eyes to the 
palpable truth, that the extra labor of a single 
season would have paid for the implement. 
Even the labor of the farmer’s daughters in 
i dtgiees. In order to produce the greatest 
i effect, it is necessary to give the sails a proper 
i velocity as compared with the velocity of the 
r-J _ j If they were entirely unloaded, theex- 
IPgUi^ j tremities would move faster than the wind, in 
USES. consequence of its action on the other parts. 
The most useful effect is produced when the 
jeen applied ends move about as fast as the wind, or about 
ious kinds o two-thirds the velocity of the average surface.” 
fkt be mucb Wind power is equally applicable to other 
ie principles farm machinery, such as turning grindstone, 
constructed sawing wood with a circular saw, churning,’ 
:ity of their driving a straw-cutter, or, if large enough, & a 
There are threshing-machine. Wind-mills must be well 
may not be and strongly built, however, and should not be 
low descrip- j allowed to run in a heavy gale of wind, as there 
ssist in giv- j is then always danger of breaking the arms or 
subject. 1 other parts of the gearing. 
I his broke the charm of the Committee of 
nominations, and an attempt was then made 
to change some of the officers, especially the 
President, Judge Cheever. But that was 
not right, and was prevented. If Judge 
Cheever did not wish to hold it after the 
locality was changed, he could resign; but it 
