226 DRAUGHT AND HARNESS. 



collar occurs in the direction T, fig. 17, the lower part 

 of the collar is pulled up against the horse's windpipe, 

 and chokes him more or less; and if in the direction 

 W, in which the pole-chains act, then it wounds the 

 withers, and in both cases has a grinding action ; 

 therefore the line that lies farthest away from these 

 two objectional directions is the least likely to cause 

 injury, and this is the perpendicular to the collar re- 

 commended in the 'Artillerist's Manual,' and is also, as 

 we have seen, the one most nearly parallel to the line 

 of propulsion through the horse's hind legs. 



Very injudicious arrangements of the collar and 

 traces occur most frequently perhaps with carts and 

 other two-wheeled vehicles. Having the misfortune 

 to live in a street leading to the coal -wharf of a railway, 

 we have specimens of this sort of thing daily and 

 hourly before our eyes, but the bakers and doctors and 

 fat farmers, reinforced now and then by a few millers 

 and brewers, are also vrell represented. Like so many 

 other absurdities, this too originates in the exaggerated 

 and therefore wrong application of a really correct and 

 useful principle. There can be no doubt that in two- 

 wheeled carriages or carts the load ought to be balanced 

 on the axle-tree, so as that a minimum of pressure 

 should fall on the horse's back, because by this arrange- 

 ment the entire power of the animal is reserved for 

 traction ; and as the most useful way of employing a 

 horse's power is in draught, and the worst is in carry- 

 ing a load, the method now universally adopted of 

 taking nearly the whole pressure off the back is quite 

 correct. This is, however, comparatively speaking, a 

 modern idea, for we can well remember the time when 

 such vehicles were loaded very differently, the weight 



