THE CHARACTER OF HARNESS. 163 



once apparent. In the first place the best leather is tanned 

 with oak bark. This process is more costly and requires a 

 year's time instead of the few weeks in which period the 

 cheaper grades are chemically tanned. Large harness manu- 

 facturers have experts who choose hides free from scars and 

 rough grain, the strength of which has not been weakened 

 by poor currying. The leather is cut as is best suited to the 

 different parts of the harness. On the other hand, cheap 

 harness is made from inferior skins. Small dealers are forced 

 to use the hide to the best advantage for their own interest 

 and at the sacrifice of that of the purchaser ; every scrap has 

 to be consumed, which often results in the leather being cut 

 across the grain, thereby reducing its strength by fifty per 

 cent. It is impossible to determine the quality of leather 

 except by feeling, and this can only be successfully accom- 

 plished after much experience. 



" Good leather is defined by Fitzgerald of New York < as being solid, 

 but not hard ; mellow, but not soft' ; qualities that cannot be explained, but 

 which can be detected instantly by any one who has the requisite experi- 

 ence." Phillipson, "Harness," p. 17. 



THE CHARACTER OF HARNESS. 



If the reader is about to set up a turn-out of a distinctive 

 type, and intends concentrating his or her efforts on a special 

 equipage, the harness should be chosen with as much regard 

 to its appropriateness and to what is considered appropriate 

 by competent judges, as though the owner intended to com- 

 pete in an appointment class at a horse show. Why ? It is 

 certainly advisable under any conditions to have what is 

 right, and it is no more expensive at the outset. 



There are a great many more differences in details than 



