When a stream within high banks cuts across a farm, a dam may be thrown across and a waterwheel installed which will furnish a cheap efficient power for lighting the farm buildings and driving much of the machinery. If the power of the stream is large enough, several farmers may club together and install a water-wheel and dynamo, and thus make the power available for a mile or more from the power plant. By means of motors, this power can be utilized to drive whatever machinery it is found desirable to connect with. Even a stream within low banks may be utilized for power if there is opportunity for a long overflow below the dam, thus allowing for the making of a flume or race at a place where the head is sufficient (Fig. 273). Undershot water-wheels (Fig. 274) are used con ས་ heavy wooden axles, pumping as much as 4,000 cubic feet of water per day. In some cases, undershot wheels are connected by means of suitable gearing or belting to pumps that elevate the water to a considerable height. An example of this arrangement may be found on the Platte river, where a 3-inch centrifugal pump elevates five acre-feet of water every twenty-four hours to a height of sixteen feet. Overshot wheels (Fig. 274) use less water than current wheels and are, therefore, employed when water is scarce. In wheels of this class, water is delivered by means of a flume on either the far or near side of the wheel, depending on the arrangement of the outlet gates controlling the supply. On the outer rim of these wheels a series of buckets is constructed into which the water pours and Fig. 273. The development of water power on a New York farm, by damming a small brook. The mill or shop is at E. The pond is at A, providing a head of 16 feet. The creek follows the line C; the other line, S, is a road. The mill is run by a 25-horse-power turbine. In the shop light sawing is done; and there are cider press, bone grinder, grindstone, feed-mill, and other power machines. A 7-horse-power wheel fed from the same flume runs a dynamo that supplies electric light for dwelling, yard and barns. siderably in irrigation work throughout the West, especially the type known as the mid-stream wheel. This type of wheel is set so that the lower paddles dip into the water, and is arranged either on pontoons or on movable bearings so as to be adjustable to the varying height of the stream. The motive power is due to the velocity of the stream in which the wheel is set. When water is abundant and the lift is not greater than the diameter of the wheel, these wheels may be employed advantageously for irrigation. They are cheap and very simple in operation. When fitted up for this kind of work they are commonly home-made and fitted with buckets attached to the paddles, which fill with water when they are submerged and spill their contents into a conduit when at or near their highest elevation. Wheels of this type have been used for ages in Egypt, Italy and in other parts of the world, and are commonly called norias. Numerous wheels of this class are in use in various parts of the West. Fig. 275 illustrates a wheel of this kind at Fresno, Cal., that raises water twelve feet and irrigates twelve acres of orange and shade trees. On the Green river in Colorado there are some wheels twenty or thirty feet in diameter, hung on by its weight causes the wheel to revolve. The buckets fill as they pass the inlet orifice and empty as they approach the bottom: thus one side of the wheel is always loaded, while the remainder of the buckets are empty. This type of wheel may be used on falls of 6 to 60 feet, and is suitable for running pumps, dynamos or any other machinery within reach. Breast wheels (Fig. 274) take the water at about midway of the height of the wheel, and depend for their motive power partly on the impulse of the water and partly on its weight. The flume for a wheel of this class should be carefully made to prevent loss of water. These wheels have been used to some extent to drive flour mills, but so far as known have not been otherwise employed in agriculture. Turbines.-There are several types of turbines on the market built by manufacturers of hydraulic supplies. Wheels of this class have a much higher efficiency than any of the older types of wheels, and are suitable for falls of 10 to 300 feet. For high falls a comparatively small wheel will develop a great amount of power. These wheels are used for driving heavy machinery, such as flour mills, electric power plants and the like. They are also used to pump water for irrigation, a notable example of this use being found at Prosser, Wash., where a turbine power and pumping plant has been erected capable of irrigating 4,000 acres of land. Fig. 274. Kinds of water-wheels,-undershot, overshot, breast. Cup wheels. For the extremely high falls found along the Sierra mountains in California, a form of impulse wheel, shown in Fig. 276, is used. These wheels have been employed on falls as high as 2,000 feet and yield an efficiency, it has been stated, as high as 90 per cent. For these extremely high heads they are said to be the best type of wheel to use. They find their application to agriculture in an indirect way, as indicated in the beginning of this article. Bucket engines are an obsolete form of motor which performed work by allowing water to enter the buckets, causing them to descend vertically. Rams. When a large spring issues from a side-hill, or a stream has a good fall, an hydraulic ram may be installed to furnish the farm buildings with water, or even to irrigate small tracts of Fig. 275. Special form of undershot water - wheel used for raising irrigation water in California. The buckets on the side of the wheel empty into the trough. land. When such a motor can be used it is sometimes a very effective pumping-engine. It is cheap, easy to keep in running order, and simple in construction. It works on the principle of utilizing a large volume of water, falling a comparatively short distance, to force a small quantity of water to a great height. The performance of rams is about as follows: One-seventh of the supply-water can be elevated to five times the height of the fall; or one-fourteenth part may be elevated ten times the height of the fall; or one-twenty-eighth part, sixteen times the height of the fall. The efficiency decreases with the height of the fall, but for comparatively low falls may run from 60 to 70 per cent. Rams provided with a snifting valve that maintains an air supply in the air-chamber, are best adapted for the higher falls. In general, the height of the fall should be two to ten feet, but many rams are operating with a much higher fall. In installing a ram, care must be taken that the pipes be protected from frost. The supply-pipe should be about 75 per cent as long as the delivery-pipe and its diameter three to four times that of the delivery Fig. 276. Type of impulse water-wheel, used for very high falls. pipe. There are many styles of rams on the market, and care must be exercised in selecting the one most suitable for the location in which it is to be installed. [For further discussion of rams, see Chapter VIII.] Water-pressure engines operate in somewhat the same way as a steam-engine, producing reciprocating motion because of the pressure of water confined in an upright pipe. They are not used in agriculture, except perhaps in a very few localities for irrigation. The power of a stream may be calculated by the following formula: P= Awh, in which A is the number of cubic feet of water falling in one second of time, w is the weight of a cubic foot of water, and h is the head or height through which the water falls. To reduce this to horse-power the Awhe, formula should read: H.P. in which e represents the efficiency, in percentage, of the type of wheel to be used. The efficiencies of the various types of water-motors run about as follows: Undershot water-wheels. Water-pressure engines Rams = 550 These values are only approximate and may vary either way several per cent, according to the method of installation, quality of the machinery, and other factors. Electric motors. Electric motors are used very little at the present time for running farm machinery in this country. Since the electric motor requires a dynamo to supply a current, and the dynamo depends on some engine for its operation, the complete outfit becomes rather too expensive and too complicated for the average farmer. However, in some favored localities near a power station, or along the line of an electric railway, where electric power can be bought from the power company, or when a number of farmers are so situated that they are able to install a coöperative power and lighting plant, the use of electricity for running machinery will be found to be very satisfactory. Under these conditions it is cheap and offers certain advantages not secured by the use of any other motor. It is clean, safe, takes up small space, and is instantly available. An electric motor can be used anywhere on the farm by extending the power wires. Several manufacturing firms have begun recently to build electric equipment for farm work, and there is good reason to hope that the near future will see a large growth of the electric industry in this field. Electric power is used to a considerable extent on the large farms in Germany for threshing and other indoor work, and to a limited extent for plowing. The following literature may be consulted for further information on farm motors: Animal motors-The Animal as a Machine and a Prime Mover, by R. H. Thurston; Physics of Agriculture, by Professor King; Animal Metabolism, by Professor Atwater. Steam engines-Twelfth United States Census; files of American Thresherman; files of The Thresherman's Review; Manual of the Steam Engine, by R. H. Thurston. Internalcombustion engines Works of the German Agricultural Society, Vol. 78; Twelfth United States Census; The Practical Gas Engineer, by E. W. Longenecker; The Gas Engine, by Professor Hutton; files of The Engineer; files of Farm Implement News. Windmills-Water-supply and Irrigation Papers, Nos. 20, 41 and 42, United States Geological Survey; University of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletins, Nos. 68, 82; University of Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 59; The Windmill as a Prime Mover, by Woolf. Hot-air engines-Thermodynamics, Peabody; Irrigation Engineering, Wilson; Life of Ericsson, Cyclopedia of Applied Mechanics, Appleton. Water motors-Hydraulic Motors, Turbines and Pressure Engines, G. R. Bodmer; Water or Hydraulic Motors, P. R. Björling; Water Power, Frizell; Scientific American, Aug. 20, 1904, Vol. 58, No. 1494. CHAPTER VII FARM BUILDINGS AND FENCES VERY BUILDING ON A FARM should be adapted directly to its uses; yet most farm buildings are traditional in plan and largely even in construction. The methods and even the ideals of farming have changed greatly and have become crystallized in new machinery, new crops, new organization and new means of finding markets; these changing ideals will work an evolution in buildings, for the buildings become an expression of the farm. The old buildings express a former order; however well-adapted they may have been to that order, for the most part they are hopelessly inefficient for the new order, and therefore also hopelessly inartistic. Nothing is more needed on American farms than new kinds of buildings, constructed on correct fundamental ideals. The three great classes of purposes to be considered in the plan of any building are these: (1) to accomplish the particular end for which it needs to be built; (2) to provide for the economizing of labor, time and effort in the accomplishing of these ends; (3) to afford sanitary conditions for man and beast. Most old farm buildings, either residences or barns, fail to meet these great requirements. In construction, they should be well made, able to stand as long as needed, and satisfying to a sensitive taste. The keynote of a good building is efficiency; and if it is completely efficient it is usually artistic in the best sense. Not only the buildings themselves, but the disposition and arrangement of them have relation to their efficiency and tastefulness. It is unquestionably true that there has been a tendency to scatter the buildings, particularly the barns, far beyond the point of efficiency and convenience. It would be interesting to make a computation as to how much time and labor are wasted each year in doing chores in separated buildings. It would seem that good executive manage ment would try to concentrate one's activities. Often the hay is in one barn, the horses in another, the cows in another, the wagons in another, and the corn in an isolated crib. No doubt it would be cheaper to build many of these departments together as compartments in a single structure; or, if these departments arise after the main barn is built, it is often possible to join some of them to the main structure rather than to make wholly separate units. The cost of maintenance of buildings is increased with several small separate structures; and the lack of organization of time and effort entails a still greater loss. The mere protection from the weather in doing chores is no inconsiderable advantage of a centralized layout, particularly in a rigorous climate. Compare Figs. 151 and 160. To a lesser degree, these remarks will also apply even to buildings in the South. An argument against the consoli Fig. 277. An example of good architecture - simple, of good proportions and directly adapted to its purpose. Individual hoghouse on skids. dation of the departments is the greater likelihood that fire may destroy the entire plant; but, as a matter of fact, it is difficult to save the separate buildings as they are usually placed. Moreover, the buildings are generally protected by insurance, and one can carry a relatively larger protection on one good building than on several poor ones; and the chance of fire is probably less in the one building than in several. A good building also should have means of fire protection. Fig. 278. A study in proportions. All these structures are of the same capacity and the doors are of the same size, but the buildings differ greatly in tastefulness. Buildings should be efficient in themselves, so planned as to save steps (or be "handy"), and also to separate unrelated work. The modern farmhouse, even though small, should contain some provision for a laundry; and, when there is a motor about the place, it can be used for effective laundry machinery, for perhaps no farm work is more ineffectively and laboriously performed than the washing. All farm dwellings. and stock-barns should be provided with running water. "Dust-lines" must be eliminated. Many weary hours of hard work will be saved and much will be gained in sanitation when meaningless mouldings and panel - work are forever discarded. It is difficult to conceive of any reason for building projecting door-cases and window-cases on the walls except to cover poor plaster work and poor joints (corners can be protected by other means, if necessary); and yet the trouble is often increased by nailing mouldings on the casings. The use of metal lath will allow us to round the corners, making a neater, stronger, more lasting and more sanitary finish, obliterating places for the collecting of dust. Fig. 292 contrasts the ugly and cumbersome old style with the neat and simple new style. Carpenters will object to building a house without the heavy casings, the picture mouldings, the panel doors, the projecting mop-boards, and all the other crack-making and dust-collecting constructions; but the new order must come. If made of good material, a perfectly plain, smooth, neatly polished door devoid of panels is handsomer than one of panel-work and bead-work, and easier to keep clean. Fig. 279. An architectural form that is inharmonious with the building, but which is acceptable because necessary. If this were a mere turret or tower, it would be inadmissible on a barn. Taste in farm buildings. The element of good taste is fundamentally important in the construction of any building; but in farm buildings it assumes special importance because the buildings stand alone and are prominently conspicuous. Fig. 280. Simple and strong lines. If this barn is exactly adapted to its purpose, it is good architecture. We are all strongly influenced by every constant condition of our lives. All of us live in buildings, and from the first to the last we associate with them. These buildings are silent teachers, always impressing us more deeply than we are aware. Sense of convenience and efficiency, of pleasing proportions, of tasteful shapes and harmonious colors ought to be the lessons that our buildings impress on us; yet how many farm buildings are really convenient and efficient, or of good proportion, or express harmony of form and color? 64 Fig. 281. Plan and Elevation of a country habitation," as proposed by J. B. Bordley in 1799 (Essays and Notes on Husbandry, Philadelphia), one of the very early plans for a farmhouse, and now one of the curiosities of agricultural literature. "The annexed drawing of a plan and elevation," Bordley says, may afford hints to persons who would build in the country. It is not the intention to give a design to be particularly followed; but principles only, on which others may build to suit themselves. The principles on which this plan is formed afford many conveniences and much room; little being wasted in useless applications of the area, which divides, in various ways, very advantageously. The middle rooms must be very comfor table in summer, from being defended on the E. and W. sides from the sun shining on and heating the walls, and being aired by opening the S. and N. windows, and the partition doors occasionally." It may be difficult to determine what is cause and what is effect-whether poor taste is the result of poor buildings or poor buildings the result of poor taste; but the influence undoubtedly works both ways. The buildings. surely express the man, we know something of his type of mind when we see his house and barns and sheds. Awkward, straggling, unrelated buildings indicate loose and purposeless ways of thinking. Good farming follows only good mental processes: these processes work themselves out in the crop-schemes, the market-business, the buildings. Rarely do we see efficient and convenient buildings without seeing also a good farmer; and efficient and convenient buildings, as already said, are almost necessarily tasteful buildings. There is no abstract canon of good taste in farm were added Fig. 282. A city type of house that may be out of It should be as easy to make a building attractive as to make it unattractive: it costs no more. What many persons think of as "architecture" is merely the "style" or "looks" of a building. Unfortunately, we seem to have it indelibly written into our minds that attractiveness is |