100 MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 



subsided, it is only necessary to lift up the fallen panels, and the fence 

 will be as firm as when first erected. Albany Cultivator. 



WAGONS AND CARTS. 



A FARMER in England, named Edward B. Liddington, has produced 

 a prize-essay on the comparative merits of wagons and carts, which 

 should arrest the attention of our farmers; for if he is right, they 

 in general are wrong. After five years' experience with wagons, 

 and nearly the same with one-horse carts, on a farm of one hun- 

 dred and seventy acres of arable and eighty acres of pasture land, 

 he came to the conclusion that the carts were of the greatest advantage. 

 As our farmers all use wagons, let them pay some attention to his 

 statement. He says, " I have no light ploughed land, nor have I 

 more than twenty or thirty acres of very heavy land. I will, there- 

 fore, relate my actual experience. In the employment of wagons and 

 the old broad-wheeled dung-carts, I required one wagon, one cart, and 

 three horses, to every fifty acres of arable land. I also kept a light 

 cart for general purposes. Now that I am employing carts, I find 

 that I get through my work much more easily with two horses and two 

 carts to fifty acres." 



In the calculation of items, his saving was nearly four dollars on the 

 cultivation of one acre, in the year. Again he says, it is admitted 

 that one horse attached to a given weight will move it more easily 

 than two horses attached to double that weight. This arises, not only 

 from the advantage gained by having all the power of draught close 

 to the work, but also all the power applied at the same moment, 

 which is almost impossible where two or more horses, having differ- 

 ent wills and steps, are attached to the weights; and for the same 

 reason, one horse will travel more quickly. 



When a cart is filled, there is no delay in attaching the trace-horses, 

 during which operation one horse would be two hundred yards on the 

 road. I know this might be done more quickly by having men ready 

 to change the horses, as in the practice of opposition coaches ; but 

 I am speaking of the matter-of-fact working of the system. Then, 

 again, when the load is deposited, the one horse turns in much less 

 time than the two or three. These facts are too self-evident to admit 

 of their contradiction ; indeed, I believe the economy of carting ma- 

 nure with one-horse carts is generally allowed, but the employment of 

 them in harvesting is much objected to. In this respect, however, I 

 find them equally expeditious and economical. My actual experience 

 is, that three carts, with the harvest frames attached, will convey as 

 much hay or corn in the straw as two wagons, and that they are 

 bound with the ropes in the same time ; therefore no time is lost in 

 the binding. They are easier to pitch into than wagons, and not more 

 difficult to unload ; and all the advantages are gained of speed in 

 travelling. 



My attention was first drawn seriously to the subject, from hiring a 

 man to draw some stones for draining. He came with a horse only 

 fourteen hands high, and a small cart, when the work he accom- 

 plished so surprised me, that I at once decided to try two fight carts, 



