94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Judge Davis. Witli regard to the suggestions which have 

 been made, I will say that there is no doubt, that, if you had 

 a uniformly narrow track, the carriages could, in the long 

 run, be made longer, and you would not have to load so high. 

 We say, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? " I 

 think we might with equal reason ask, " Is not the judgment 

 of all the world always right?" Now, the judgment of all 

 the world is, that a narrow carriage is not more liable to tip 

 over, if the other conditions are changed, than a wider one. 

 If you have your wheels of a gauge-wire narrower than the 

 present one, have your wagon made a little longer, or, if you 

 choose, three or four feet longer. The wheels need not be 

 so high, in the first place, and the load will be more equally 

 distributed. We carry a load of wood in a common horse- 

 wagon, we call it; we carry a cord, if we can, with two 

 horses ; we put it in two piles of a certain height. If we 

 wanted to carry a load of wood on a wagon with narrower 

 axles, I think that, practically, all the difference would be, 

 that we should carry our wood in three piles, instead of two ; 

 but the three piles would not be nearly as high as they are 

 now. The difference in width would not be great enough to 

 make a third pile of the same height as the two are now, and 

 the result would be that the whole load would be lower than 

 it is with the wagons in use at the present time. 



Mr. Beown. Don't you think it would help the roads 

 very much if you had carriages of different widths? 



Judge Davis. Certainly, if it is practicable ; but it is not 

 practicable where there are sandy roads, where there is but 

 One track. If the law that was proposed last winter provid- 

 ing for wide tires were passed, that might make a difference. 

 If you go up over the hill to East Bridgewater, you will 

 find every team has a wide tire, and it can go anywhere. 

 But practically, in this section of the State, the wide track 

 controls entirely ; and, if we have two tracks, they are both 

 wide ; and everybody who has a narrow axle hops along, 

 wrenches his carriage, and gets along the best way he can. 

 I do not think that, practically, the market-men would have 

 any difiSculty in getting along ; for the market-men of almost 

 all the world do get along, even with narrower axles than four 

 feet and eight inches. I suggested that there were prejudices 

 and difficulties to be encountered ; for there is no old custom. 



