Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1894 — Farming by Electricity. [ARTICLE]

Farming by Electricity.

There would seem hardly a limit to the possibilities of electricity in the near future. It has been already applied in directions undreamed of fifty years ago, and it would seem that the next fifty years will witness a complete revolution in the modes and ways of living, due primarily to its application in ordinary, every-day affairs. Electricity has already largely displaced horses and steam in the city, and an experiment of its application to farm work was recently made in Scotland. Of course, this use of electricity is still experimental, as the questions of cost and convenience must first be settled before it can come into general use for agricultural purposes. On this Scotch farm the electricity is generated by a turbine wheel in a neighboring watercourse, and there is no doubt that it will soon be possible to generate electricity thus at a great reduction from its present cost. From the point of generation the electricity is conveyed by wires in the usual way to the house and other parts of the farm where it is to be used. The house is lighted by electricity, and electricity drives all stationary farm machinery. Thrashers, hay balers and everything of that kind to the farm grindstone and churn, can be operated easily by electric power, and an electric pump is kept in constant operation. The motor used is sixteen-horse power, which is ample for running the entire farm. With such a motor in full working order, all that would be necessary in order to start everything on the farm, from the churn to the thresher, would be to press a button. Such a release from drudgery would go further than anything else to solve the problem whether life is worth living. We fear, however, that some people are born so lazy that the mere effort of pressing the button would be too much for them.