"During the nineteen months we have been running the wind mill, it has cost us nothing for repairs. We run it with a two-hole corn sheller, a set of 16-inch burr stones, and an elevator. We grind all kinds of feed, also corn meal and Graham flour. We have ground 8,340 bushels, and would have ground much more if corn had not been a very poor crop here for the past two seasons; besides, we have our farm to attend to, and cannot keep it running all the time that we have wind. We have not run a full day at any time, but have ground 125 bushels in a day. When the burr is in good shape we can grind 20 bushels an hour, and shell at the same time in the average winds that we have. The mill has withstood storms without number, even one that blew down a house near it, and another that blew down many smaller mills. It is one of the best investments any one can make."

The writer saw this mill about sixty days ago, and it is in good shape, and doing the work as stated. The only repairs that it has required during four years was one bevel pinion put on this spring.

The owner of a 16-foot diameter mill, erected at Blue Springs. Neb., says that "with a fair wind it grinds easily 15 bushels of corn per hour with a No. 3 grinder, also runs a corn-sheller and pump at the same time, and that it works smoothly and is entirely self-regulating."

The No. 3 grinder referred to has chilled iron burrs, and requires from 3 to 4 horse-power to grind 15 bushels of corn per hour. Of one of these 16-foot mills that has been running since 1875 in Northern Illinois, the owner writes: "In windy days I saw cord-wood as fast as the wood can be handled, doing more work than I used to accomplish with five horses."

The owner of one of these mills, 20 feet in diameter, running in the southwestern part of this State, writes that he has a corn-sheller and two iron grinding mills with 8-inch burrs attached to it; also a bolting device; that this mill is more profitable to him than 80 acres of good corn land, and that it is easily handled and has never been out of order. The following report on one of these 16-foot mills, running in northern Illinois, may be of interest: This mill stands between the house and barn. A connection is made to a pump in a well-house 25 feet distant, and is also arranged to operate a churn and washing machine. By means of sheaves and wire cable, power is transmitted to a circular saw 35 feet distant. In this same manner power is transmitted to the barn 200 feet distant, where connection is made to a thrasher, corn-sheller, feed-cutter, and fanning-mill. The corn-sheller is a three horse-power, with fan and sacker attached. Three hundred bushels per day has been shelled, cleaned, and sacked. The thrashing machine is a two horsepower with vibrating attachment for separating straw from grain. One man has thrashed 300 bushels of oats per day, and on windy days says the mill would run a thrasher of double this capacity.

The saw used is 18 inches diameter, and on windy days saws as much wood as can be done by six horses working on a sweep power. The owner furnishes the following approximate cost of mill with the machinery attached and now in use on his place:

 1 16-foot power wind mill, shafting, and tower. $385

1 Two horse thrasher. 70

1 Three horse sheller. 38

1 Feed grinder. 50

1 18-inch saw, frame and arbor. 40

1 Fanning mill. 25

1 Force pump. 27

1 Churn. 5

1 Washing machine. 15

Belting, cables, and pulleys. 45

----

Total. $700 

The following facts and figures furnished by the owner will give a fair idea of the economic value of this system, as compared with the usual methods of doing the same work. On the farm where it is used, there are raised annually an average of sixty acres of oats, fifty acres of corn, twenty acres of rye, ten acres of buckwheat.

 Bushels.

The oats average, say 30 bushels per acre. 1,800

Corn " 30 " " 1,500

Rye " 20 " " 400

Buckwheat " 20 " " 200

Grinding for self and others. 1,000 
 It will cost to thrash this grain, shell the corn, and

grind the feed with steam power. $285

And sawing wood, 12½ cords. 18

Pumping, one hour per day, 365 days. 36

Churning, half hour per day, 200 days. 10

Washing, half day per week, 26 days. 26

----

Total. $375 

This amount is saved, and more too, as one man, by the aid of the wind mill, will do this work in connection with the chores of the farm, and save enough in utilizing foul weather to more than offset his extra labor, cost of oil, etc., for the machinery. The amount saved each year is just about equal to the cost of a good man. Cost of outfit, $700--just about equal to the cost of a good man for two years, consequently, it will pay for itself in two years. Fifteen years is a fair estimate for the lifetime of mill with ordinary repairs.

The solid-wheel wind mill has never been built larger than 30 feet in diameter. For mills larger than this, the latest improved American mill is the "Warwick" pattern.

A 30-foot mill of this pattern, erected in 1880, in northwestern Iowa, gave the following results, as reported by the owner:

"Attachments as follows: One 22-inch burr; one No. 4 iron feed-mill; one 26-inch circular saw; one two-hole corn-sheller; one grain elevater; a bolting apparatus for fine meal, buckwheat and graham, all of which are run at the same time in good winds, except the saw or the iron mill; they being run from the same pulley can run but one at a time. With all attached and working up to their full capacity, the sails are often thrown out of the wind by the governors, which shows an immense power. The machines are so arranged that I can attach all or separately, according to the wind. With the burr alone I have ground 500 bushels in 48 consecutive hours, 100 bushels of it being fine meal. I have also ground 24 full bushels of fine meal for table use in two hours. This last was my own, consequently was not tolled. This was before I bought the iron mill, and now I can nearly double that amount. I saw my fire wood for three fires; all my fence posts, etc. My wood is taken to the mill from 12 to 15 feet long, and as large as the saw will cut by turning the stick, consequently the saw requires about the same power as the burrs. With a good sailing breeze I have all the power I need, and can run all the machinery with ease. Last winter I ground double the amount of any water mill in this vicinity.

I have no better property than the mill."

A 40-foot mill, erected at Fowler, Indiana, in 1881, is running the following machinery:

"I have a universal wood worker, four side, one 34-inch planer, jig saw, and lathe, also a No. 4 American grinder, and with a good, fair wind I can run all the machines at one time. I can work about four days and nights each week. It is easy to control in high winds."

A 60-foot diameter mill of similar pattern was erected in Steel County, Minnesota, in 1867. The owner gives the following history of this mill:

"I have run this wind flouring mill since 1867 with excellent success. It runs 3 sets of burrs, one 4 feet, one 3½ feet, and one 33 inches. Also 2 smutters, 2 bolts, and all the necessary machinery to make the mill complete. A 15-mile wind runs everything in good shape. One wind wheel was broken by a tornado in 1870, and another in 1881 from same cause. Aside from these two, which cost $250 each, and a month's lost time, the power did not cost over $10 a year for repairs. In July, 1833, a cyclone passed over this section, wrecking my will as well as everything else in its track, and having (out of the profits of the wind mill) purchased a large water and steam flouring mill here, I last fall moved the wind mill out to Dakota, where I have it running in first-class shape and doing a good business. The few tornado wrecks make me think none the less of wind mills, as my water power has cost me four times as much in 6 years as the wind power has in 16 years."

There are very few of these large mills in use in this country, but there are a great many from 14 to 30 feet in diameter in use, and their numbers are rapidly increasing as their merits become known. The field for the use of wind mills is almost unlimited, and embraces pumping water, drainage, irrigation, elevating, grinding, shelling, and cleaning grain, ginning cotton, sawing wood, churning, running stamp mills, and charging electrical accumulators. This last may be the solution of the St. Louis gas question.

In the writer's opinion the settlement of the great tableland lying between the Mississippi Valley and the Rocky Mountains, and extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Red River of the North, would be greatly retarded, if not entirely impracticable, in large sections where no water is found at less than 100 to 500 feet below the surface, if it were not for the American wind mill; large cattle ranges without any surface water have been made available by the use of wind mills. Water pumped out of the ground remains about the same temperature during the year, and is much better for cattle than surface water. It yet remains in the future to determine what the wind mill will not do with the improvements that are being made from to time.