There has been some discussion of late in regard to the horse power of wind mills, one party claiming that they were capable of doing large amounts of grinding and showing a development of power that was surprising to the average person unacquainted with wind mills, while the other party has maintained that they were not capable of developing any great amount of power, and has cited their performance in pumping water to sustain his argument.  My experience has has led me to the conclusion that pumping water with a wind mill is not a fair test of the power that it is capable of developing, for the following reasons: 

A pumping wind mill is ordinarily attached to a pump of suitable size to allow the mill to run at a mean speed in an 8 to 10 mile wind.  Now, if the wind increases to a velocity of 16 to 20 miles per hour, the mill will run up to its maximum speed and the governor will begin to act, shortening sail before the wind attains this velocity.  Therefore, by a very liberal estimate, the pump will not throw more than double the quantity that it did in the 8 to 10 mile wind, while the power of the mill has quadrupled, and is capable of running at least two pumps as large as the one to which it is attached.  As the velocity of the wind increases, this same proportion of difference in power developed to work done holds good.

St. Louis is not considered a very windy place, therefore the following table may be a surprise to some.  This table was compiled from the complete record of the year 1881, as recorded by the anemometer of the United States Signal Office on the Mutual Life Insurance Building, corner of Sixth and Locust streets, this city.  It gives the number of hours each month that the wind blew at each velocity, from 6 to 20 miles per hour during the year; also the maximum velocity attained each month.

Complete Wind Record at St. Louis for the Year 1881.

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|No.    |No.    |No.    |No.    |No.    |No.    |No.    |No.    |
|hours  |hours  |hours  |hours  |hours  |hours  |hours  |hours  |Maximum
|wind   |wind   |wind   |wind   |wind   |wind   |wind   |wind   |velocity
year  |blew 6 |blew 8 |blew 10|blew 12|blew 14|blew 16|blew 18|blew 20|during
1881. |miles  |miles  |miles  |miles  |miles  |miles  |miles  |miles  |each
months|or over|or over|or over|or over|or over|or over|or over|or over|month.
______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_____

__|_______|____
|H.    M.|H.    M.|H.    M.|H.    M.|H.    M.|H.    M.| H.  M.| H.  M.|
Jan.  | 545 45| 429 45| 289 00| 198 15| 131 30|  87 15|  56 00|  38 45| 31
Feb.  | 619 30| 533 15| 449 15| 374 15| 287 00| 207 15| 151 15| 110 30| 32
March.| 604 15| 534 30| 449 45| 368 45| 296 30| 243 45| 191 00| 158 45| 37
April.| 577 15| 468 45| 342 45| 359 30| 175 00| 121 00|  62 45|  36 00| 28
May.  | 553 00| 375 00| 226 15| 138 00|  74 45|  42 30|  23 45|  11 30| 31