1 May, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 419 
| UTILISING WIND POWER IN THE BARN. 
Norwrrnsraxping the march of science which has largely conduced to substi- 
titine mechanical power for hand labour on the farm, we yet see on outlying 
| farms the old, old methods employed. The chipping hoe and seed-bag, the 
nd cornsheller and sieve, husking corn by hand, digging potatoes with a long- 
dled shovel, two men employed to grind an axe, and so on. How is it that, 
Whilst farmers in the United States are continually inventing some useful farm 
™plement calculated to save a world of labour, our Queensland small farmers 
lot only ire guiltless of invention, but will not eveu take the trouble to profit 
y the inventive genius of our American brethren? There is one motive power 
Which is utterly ignored by farmers (except when they have sunk a well)—a 
Power which for centuries has ground the corn of Europe and America—a 
| Power which carries millions of tons of produce daily over many thousand miles 
of water, That power is the wind. If we suggest windmills to a farmer for 
| “y other purpose but pumping water he scorns the notion. “ Wind isn’t 
| “rtain,’ he says. “If 1 want to thresh corn by the help of a windmill, 
tnd the wind drops, where am I? No better off’ He quite fails 
observe that his water-raising windmill comes to a_ standstill at 
mes, and yet he would not like to go half-a-dozen times a day 
| the swamp with a bucket, as he did in the good old days. Supposing 
|" were threshing corn or grinding an axe by wind power, and the 
| “ind dropped, why should he not take up some other necessary job until a 
| Meeze again consented to turn the sails? It is the old conservatism which 
| “presses itself in the words, “It was good enough for my old man, and it will 
| “ttve my time,” which is the stumbling-block in the way of using appliances 
‘ Which would greatly simplify and expedite many kinds of work. Now here is 
‘h idea which is in practical operation on many farms in the State of Connecticut 
‘S.A.). The description is taken from the Rural New Yorker, and is well 
North perusal, being written by one of the farmers, whose idea it is:—The 
| “ustration shows my windmill and the pile of wood sawn with it. This shows 
| ‘hat there is sufficient available power in a 12-feet geared mill to run all 
| Nachines necessary on a farm. Notice the size of those blocks. Some of them 
~ _ 
ne 20 inches across, old, dry apple and knotty ash, which are very hard; yet 
4 Y were all sawn without stopping the saw. This mill runs a thresher that 
qe the grain from the straw and chaff at one operation. A boy fifteen years 
| “and myself got from the mow and threshed twenty shocks of oats m one 
rl 
