THE FARMER AT HOME. 451 



There is in the country an abundance of land adapted to the growth 

 of wheat not yet used, so that should there be a foreign demand for 

 it, this valuable grain could be produced to any amount however 

 great. 



WHEELBARROW. This is a well known implement, less 

 common than it should be on farms, to be used by Land for carrying 

 light loads a short distance. No farmer especially should be without 

 one. To remove earths, lime, manure, wood, farm or garden pro- 

 ducts, or indeed any thing else, only a few rods, it is quicker and 

 more economical than to use a cart or waggon. The greater the 

 diameter of the wheel of a barrow, and the smaller the axles, or ends 

 of the gudgeons, on which it turns, the less power will be required to 

 drive it forward ; for the leverage is thereby augmented, and the 

 friction materially reduced. It is supposed that the diameter of the 

 wheel might advantageously be increased one-half above what it 

 generally is. With a barrow thus constructed a man will move 

 eight hundred pounds with the same ease, that with the usual barrow he 

 moves five hundred pounds. Barrows are frequently employed in 

 England, constructed entirely of wrought iron, weighing less than an 

 hundred pounds, which of course are very durable and easily moved. 



WHE ELBARROW. 







WHEELS. The utility of wheels to carriages may be said to 

 be two-fold ; namely, by diminishing or more easily overcoming the 

 resistance or friction from the carriage, and more easily overcoming 

 obstacles in the road. In the first the friction on the ground is trans- 

 ferred in some degree from the outer surface of the wheel to its nave 

 and axle, and in the latter they serve easily to raise the carriage over 

 obstacles and asperities met with on the roads. In both these cases 

 the height of the wheel is of material consideration ; as the spokes act 

 as levers, the top of an obstacle being the fulcrum, their length enables 

 the carriage more easily to surmount them, and the greater the pro- 

 portion of the wheel to the axle serves more easily to overcome the 

 friction of an axle. The principle, therefore, of mechanical philoso- 

 phy is, that large wheels are best adapted for surmounting inequalities 

 on the road. Nevertheless there are other circumstances of a coun- 

 teracting tendency, s? that limits should be prescribed for the height 



