THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



469 



labour has been incurred in the attempt to detei-ruiue 

 whether cercarice have tails or not, we have it on the high 

 authorit}' of Professor Simonds liimself, that " it is still a 

 matter of doubt whether ccrcarice become parasitic to other 

 creatures, such as small tvafcr snails, and undergo higher 

 development in them before entering the sheep to undergo 



their last change." The subject is one of very great im" 

 portance, but till natui-alists have determined the exact 

 form of the creature which enters the organism of the 

 sheep, and is there developed into a perfect fluke, it is 

 prematui-e to hope that any specific for the prevention or 

 ciu-e of the malady will be discovered. 



COMMON ROAD LOCOMOTIVES. 



The steam-horse in our thoroughfares is daily becoming 

 more and more a national necessity. Steam and machi- 

 nery may not inaptly be termed tiie backbone "of England 

 as regards her industrial system, and steam conveyance by 

 sea and land the spinal marrow and ligaments that hold 

 the vertebraj together. As bone grows, so must nerve, liga- 

 ment, and muscle; othenvise the industrial fabric will be- 

 come deformed. Parts must grow proportionally to the 

 importance of their functions. Thus our population is 

 increasing rapidly ; our steam manufacturing machinery is 

 keeping pace with this increase ; so is our steam shipping 

 interest ; our railway locomotion is not falling much be- 

 hind. But here we 'stop short of progress in the right 

 direction, for our thoroughfares are, by reason of these 

 increases, virtually in " a dead lock ;" while in the cultiva- 

 tion of land, and cartage of its ^jroduce by steam power 

 there can hardly be said to be much more yet than the 

 first signs of life, There is a structural defbnuity here, 

 a deficiency of vital force in that part of the sj'Stem yclept 

 " common road locomotion." 



In the outset of our subject it thus requu-es no proof to 

 show that the steam-horse in our thoroughfares and common 

 roads must receive every manner of fairplay at the hands 

 of the public and the Legislature. Indeed it must appear 

 manifest to every one conversant with the subject, that 

 this branch of the industrial fabric merits every encou- 

 ragement that can possibly be given it, whether in the 

 form of legislation, public patronage, or the investment of 

 capital. 



Patentees and the proprietors of traction-engines experi- 

 ence in the want of certain statutory provision a great 

 drawback to the investment of capital necessary to carry 

 out successfully their proposition; while on the part of 

 very many no doubt well intentioned members of the com- 

 munity, there still continues to be harboured a vast 

 amount of prejudice to steam in om* thoroughfares and 

 common roads, owing to the limited view they take of the 

 subject, and the imperfect medium or dayhght in which 

 they examine its vastly great, but undefined proportions, 

 the difterent members of the system appearing distorted. 



Many more than the writer of this are beginning to be 

 apprehensive that too many of our senators, in both 

 branches of the Legislature, are as yet only examining the 

 steam-horse in a somewhat cloudy and misty atmosphere. 



The day no doubt begins to dawn; but the rays of light 

 are so intercepted by clouds, fogs, and the " WiU-o'-Wisp" 

 beings who continually inhabit such a horizon, that some 

 minds appear so bewildered as hardly to be able to say to 

 what class of animals the steam-horse actually belongs — 

 whether the useful ones that merit their patronage and 

 support, or to the other class, whose disappearance from 

 the regions of terra firma is always considered a hearl-felt 

 reUef. 



It is, however, to the general public that the steam- 



horse must show his symmetry, and discover to what 

 denomination of beings he really belongs. In the 

 daily struggle of life, necessity often compels people to 

 take a difierent view of things than, otherwise situated, 

 they would often do ; and at the present time, many more 

 friendly eyes are turneff towards the steam-horse than 

 there were but only a few years ago. Time is equivalent 

 to money in the commercial world ; and the daily- 

 increasing delay already experienced in the British capital 

 from an overcrowded state of the streets so curtails pro- 

 fit, as to threaten ultimately the complete annihilation of 

 trade. "Small profits and quick returns" have become 

 established axioms in successful business. This, too, has 

 in no small degree arisen from the triumphs of steam and 

 the changes brought about by this powerful agent. But 

 the growing delay now expei'ienced in street traffic is dia- 

 metrically opposed to both these axioms : hence the im- 

 propriety, if not impossibility, of fighting any longer 

 against a current which must eventually sweep everything 

 before it. Again, in the provinces, or at the other end of 

 our railway system, the progress of economy has already 

 taught the agricultural interest that the horse is an expen- 

 sive motive power — one that soon eats oft" its own head — 

 and that things, generally speaking, cannot remain much 

 longer in the position they are now in. In short, a farm- 

 horse is not only expensive to keep, as to food and tear- 

 and-wear on his carcase, hut his feet do an immense harm 

 to the drainage and aeration of land, while they are 

 scarcely less destructive to roads, so that it were diflicult 

 to put a proper estimate upon the losses the provinces at 

 present sustain. 



Such, then, being the heavy burden now borne by 

 both town and country, it is no more than natural 

 to propose laying it upon the steam- horse. In point of 

 fact, he is already at work ; and that the result will be a 

 complete triumph, must appear manifest to all who know 

 anything about his capabilities in harness. What is now 

 wanted is the necessary statutory provision required by 

 capitalists, and tlie combination of connecting interests to 

 form worldng systems of steam traction or common road 

 locomotion. 



We now come to the modus operandi of extending our 

 steam-conveyance traffic through the instrumentality of 

 public companies and individual enterprise, so as to meet 

 our growing exigencies in both town and country. In all 

 questions of this kind the prudent course to pursue is to 

 examine closely in all its bearings every proposition, to see 

 if it is sound in principle, with a view to get systems based 

 upon a solid foundation. Expediency may have her claims, 

 but there is a common-sense in everything of this kind 

 that cannot be gainsayed. 



In all our large towns we have oiu- wholesale and retail 

 business. There are here two principles involved, which 

 are just as applicable to the conveyance of goods as to 



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