Use Five Farms as Big Laboratory to Watch Electricity at Work (Dec, 1930)
Use Five Farms as Big Laboratory to Watch Electricity at Work
AGRICULTURAL interests of twenty-four states have united in an effort to find out just what can be done with electricity on the farms of this country. At present the experiments are being made on five average farms in Maryland under the direction of the University of Maryland. On them electricity is being used for almost everything, from killing flies to turning on an alarm clock to wake the hens to a busy day of laying. When flies light on a screen through which a current is passing, sparks leap out and electrocute them.
At a certain hour in the morning an alarm clock goes off in the henhouse and an electric heater starts warming water for the hens. Pressing a button near the farmer’s bed turns on floodlights that bring the brilliance of day to the nighttime.
Electrically powered machines milk the cows, polish the plowshares, wash the dishes, sweep the floor, heat hotbeds, cool the refrigerators, and cook the food. Electricity runs sewing machines, bread and cake mixers, and washing and ironing machines.
With these mechanical aides, the farmer’s wife is able to do her work in half the time with less than half the effort required under the old system.
Those in charge of the experimental farms found that electric current for refrigeration cost about one fourth as much as ice for the same purpose. Similarly, twenty-five cows were milked for forty days at a cost of $30 for current. The sponsors of the new movement say that economy and efiiciency are combined when electricity goes to the farm.