Book IV. ^VAGGONS. 401 



bearing on tf>e horses or cattle. In goinc down hill. 2dly, The raeihod of applying friction to the ^ide of 

 the wheel, to regulate the motion of the carriage In going down hill (instead of kicking the wheels), the 

 advantages of which method appear to be as follow : namely, first, the pressure and degree of friction may, 

 with great expedition, be adjusted to the steepness of the declivity, so that the carriage will neither press 

 forward, nor require much exertion to make it!foIlow the cattle ; secondly, the friction is so applied to the 

 wheel, that a given pressure will have twice the effect in retarding the progress that it would have if im- 

 mediately applied to the body of the carriage, or to the axis : and by applying the friction on both sides of the 

 wheel, the risk of heating and destroying the friction-bar is much less than if the same degree of friction 

 was applied in one place. 3dly, This apparatus is so conveniently placed, that it can be instantly applied 

 or adjusted, without stopping the carriage, or exposing the driver to the same danger as in locking a 

 wheel. And, 4thly, This contrivance will assume yet a greater importance when applied to both the hind 

 wheels of waggons, by which means the resistance may always be pro[)ortioned to the steepness of the 

 descent, the tearing up of the road prevented, the unnecessary exertion of the Cattle in drawing the locked, 

 carriage down hill avoided, the danger to which the driver is sometimes exposed in locking the waggon- 

 wheel totally evaded, and the time now lost in locking and unlocking the wheel saved to the proprietor. 



2617. The improved quarry cart has a bend in its iron axle, which brings it within four- 

 teen inches of the ground, although moving on wheels more than five feet high. The 

 ease with which it is drawn, loaded and unloaded, is superior to the common cart in the 

 proportion of seven to three. 



26 1 8. The three wheel cart is a low machine on wheels about two feet in diameter, the 

 third wheel placed in the middle before, and generally of smaller size than the two others. 

 It is used for conveying earth or gravel to short distances, as in canal and road making, 

 and for these purposes it is a most valuable machine, and in very general use. 



SuBSHCT. 2. Waggons. 



2619. rrhgg-ons constructed in different forms, and of various dimensions, are made 

 use of in different districts of the kingdom ; and mostly without much attention to the 

 nature of the roads, or the articles which are to be conveyed by them ; being, in general, 

 heavy, clumsy, and inconvenient. Waggons require much more power in the draught 

 than carts, and are far from being so handy and convenient, which is certainly an ob- 

 jection to them, though they carry a much greater load. There can be no doubt that 

 more work may be done in any particular time, with the same number of horses, by carts 

 than by waggons, in the general run of husbandry business, especially where the distance 

 is small between loading and unloading. Waggons may perhaps be the most proper sort 

 of conveyances for different sorts of heavy loads to a considerable distance ; but for home 

 business, especially harvest and other field work, which requires to be speedily performed, 

 carts seem decidedly preferable. 



2620. Waggons, though they may possess some advantages over carts in long journeys-, 

 and when fully loaded, the editor of The Farmer s Magazine observes, are now 

 admitted to be much less convenient for the general purposes of a farm, and particularly 

 on occasions which require great dispatch, as in harvesting the crop. 



2621. The Gloucestershire waggon, according to Marshal, is the best in England. By 

 means of a crooked side-rail, bending archwise over the hind-wheel, the bodies or frames 

 of them are kept low, without the diameter of the wheels being much lessened. The 

 bodies are likewise made wide in proportion to their shallowness, and the wheels run six 

 inches wider than those of most other waggons, whereby advantages in carrying top -loads 

 are evidently obtained. Rudge, in liis survey of the above district, says, that in many 

 districts, waggons are the principal carriages employed in getting in the hay, and are 

 either full-bedded, or with three-quarter beds. The former have the advantage of a 

 greater length of bed, but are not so convenient for turning ; the latter, though dimi- 

 nished in size, have the convenience of locking the fore-wheels, and turning in almost as 

 narrow a compass as a chaise, in consequence of the bed being hollowed out on each 

 side near the middle, to admit the exterior part, or felloes of the fore-wheels. Botli 

 waggons are capable of carrying nearly the same weight, though the former, being deeper 

 in the bed, is somewhat better adapted for the carriage of heavy articles, such as bags of 

 corn, &c. For the purpose of harvesting, or carrying hay and straw, their length and 

 width are increased by light ladders before and behind, and of similar contrivances 

 called "rathes," the whole length of the sides. The ladders are put on and taken off at 

 pleasure, in both kinds, but the side additions are generally fixed, except in tlie strait- 

 headed, which are in use on the western side of the Severn ; in these tliey are made 

 removeable, so as to leave the bod quite naked. 



2622. The Berkshire waggon^^^^^^^ .^j^^^^^^s^ ^'^'^ 

 {Jig. 344.) is constructed on a sim- 

 ple and convenient principle, not 

 having the usual height or weight 

 of other waggons, while it pos- 

 sesses sufficient strength, and is 

 easy in the draught. An im- 

 provement suggested is that of 

 leaving the space sufficiently deep in the body or bed for the fore- wheels to lock round 

 in the shortest curve, as in the present manner of its construction, a great deal of time 



Dd 



