1869. 



KEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



69 



SAFFOED'S CATTLE STAJTCHION. 



Most of our readers will recollect a cut and 

 description of a Cattle Stanchion patented by 

 Mr. SafFord, which was published about a 

 year ago, at page 69 of Monthly Fakmer. 

 This was regarded as a great improvement on 

 our hitherto imperfect stable fastenings. But 

 Mr. SaiTord still continues his efforts for fur- 

 ther improvements, and has patented another 

 device which differs from the first in being 

 more readily applied to ordinary stanchions, 

 and in being so constructed as to allow the 

 animal to lie on either side, and to rise up 

 with greater ease. Common stanchions may 

 be readily changed into the improved ones by 

 suspending the neck bars A A, in above cut, 

 loosely in the top-piece, by cleats, at the top ; 

 connecting the lower ends of the bars with the 

 yoke F, and attaching this yoke to the bed- 

 piece with a chain of sufficient length to allow 

 the lower part of the stanchions to swing and 

 twist about fref ly. The bottom cleats E pre- 

 vent side movement in case one animal is dis- 

 posed to hook another. The three short 

 cross-bars on B B B are to prevent cattle from 

 crowding into the feeding place. C shows 

 the manner in which the bars are fastened in 

 the yoke, which is done by nailing leather 

 around the projecting end of the bar. 



For the convenience of the engraver the 

 cut gives a diagonal view of the stanchions 

 which at first sight may represent them as 

 leaning. This is not correct, as the stan- 

 chions are perpendicular. 



It being difficult to give a correct view or 

 description of this invention, and as a prac- 

 tical test is more satisfactory than theory, Mr. 

 Safford authorizes us to say that he will allow 

 any farmer to make and use one stanchion as 

 long as he pleases, without buying the right 



to use or make others. For further particu- 

 lars address Larkin S. Safford, North Apple- 

 ton, Me. 



■WHAT DRIVES THE ENGINE? 

 A year before his death, George Stephenson 

 visited Sir Robert Peel, at Drayton Manor. 

 Professor Buckland was of the party. One 

 day, as they observed a train speeding along 

 the valley in the distance, Mr. Stephenson 

 said, 



"Now, Buckland, I have a poser for you. 

 Can you tell me what is the power that is driv- 

 ing that train ?" 



"Well," said the Professor, "I suppose it 

 is one of your big engines." 

 "But what drives the engine ?" 

 "Oh, very likely a canny Newcastle driver." 

 "What do you say to the light of the sun ?" 

 "How can that be ?" asked the Professor, 

 "It is nothing else," said the engineer. "It 

 is light bottled up in the earth for tens of 

 thousands of years ; light absorbed by plants 

 and vegetables being necessary for the con- 

 densation of carbon during their growth, if it 

 be not carbon in another form. And now af- 

 ter being buried in the earth for long ages in 

 fields of coal, that latent light is again brought 

 forth, and liberated, and made to work, as in 

 that locomotive for great human purposes," 



BUYEES' KUIiES, 

 The force of habit is one of the most strik- 

 ing examples of human weakness. The full 

 meaning of the word "force" in this connec- 

 tion, however, can be realized only by those 

 who have battled against some bad habit in 

 which themselves or those with whom they 

 were associated have long indulged. A few 

 months since, notwithstanding its obvious in- 

 justice, the attempt to perpetuate the very 

 convenient habit of buying wool on "general 

 principles," was made by infiuential parties. 

 This excited a bitter contest between buyer 

 and seller. But wool dealers are not the 

 only ones who have attempted to enforce 

 buyers' rules that had acquired the force of 

 habit. In a report of a committee appointed 

 by the State Agricultural Society of Virginia, 

 to write a brief history of individuals who had 

 effected improvements in the agricultural in- 

 terests of the State, we find the following 

 honorable mention, as a benefactor to farmers. 



