332 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



miiture the fruit. The cords on which the vines climb are secured 

 to a clamp on the ground near the root of the vine, passed up 

 through loops in the wire overhead, which keeps ever}^ cord in 

 its proper place; then the other ends are brought again in the 

 ground, where they are secured to a clamp. It is claimed that 

 vJU'js of any kind will be far more productive on such trellises, 

 than Avhen allowed to twine round poles. 



Saffoed's Swinging Cattle Stanchion. 



Mr. Larkin S. Safford, Newtonville, Mass., exhibited a model of 

 an improved stanchion for fastening cattle to their mangers. It 

 is simply the old fashioned stanchion on hinges. Each stanchion 

 is capable of being turned half way round like a gate. All that 

 is claimed for this improvement is, that cattle have much more 

 liberty while their necks are secured in the fastenings than they 

 do when confined in the rigid stanchion. Mr. Larkin stated that 

 when dairy cows are coniined in this kind of stanchion it is more 

 convenient to milk them, and the cows keep themselves more 

 clean when they lie down, than they do in the rigid fastenings. 



Irrigating Meadows. 



Mr. SafFord spoke of his plan of irrigating meadows at his 

 place, Hope, Maine. He has forty acres which he irrigates 

 from a small stream, to June, and after haying, till cold weather. 

 He does not allow the water to go on in the winter, as it kills the 

 roots of the grass. Of two fields side by side, one, without irri- 

 gation, yielded 400 pounds to the acre, the other, irrigated, from 

 two to three tons. He uses no manure. 



Barrels Without Staves. 



Mr. D. M. Easton of this city, showed several specimens of bar- 

 rels or casks made of ten or fifteen thicknesses of veneering, or 

 scales cut from spruce. These run spirally across each other at 

 right angles, and are fastened together with glue. The hoops are 

 on the inside; the heads slip down upon a hoop with which it forms 

 half of a dove-tail joint, and is secured by cement; the head and 

 the shell of the barrel, previously having been turned in a lathe. 

 These scales are cut by a machine which costs less than $1,000; it 

 will cut from 60,000 to 70,000 a day; thirty of them are cut from 

 an inch board, and any kind of timber will answer — pine, beech, 

 spruce, &c. The cost is one-third less than a common barrel, and 



