SADDLERY AND HARNESS. 495 



which they are manufactured. Such a desideratum necessitates that a 

 precise measurement should be taken. Not only is length and breadth 

 required, but the curves or shape of the body are also needed. The 

 material employed by saddle-makers to ascertain such particulars is 

 equally simple and effective. It consists merely of a narrow slip of 

 pliable sheet-lead, about two feet long, and doubled in the center, like 

 a pair of compasses. Such a material will preserve the outline of that 

 body on which it may be compressed, and is sufficiently solid to retain 

 any indentations made upon its substance ; thus it possesses those 

 attributes which to the saddler are essentials. 



With such an article, the shape of the barrel, the sweep of the shoul- 

 ders, and the hollow of the back can be accurately moulded, while even 

 particulars can be ascertained; for lead 

 demands little pressure to assume the 

 figure of any substance over which it is 

 bent, and will subsequently remain suf- 

 ficiently fixed to permit of the lines, 

 which have been modeled, being traced 

 upon a sheet of paper. This process a baddle-tree -with the spring shrrcp 



, , , 1 -1 t ^^"^ ATTACHED. 



should always be observed ; but when 



a saddle has to be made, it does not constitute the "be all and the end 

 all" of the tradesman's duty. The tree, or the wooden base of the future 

 article, should invariably be tried on the horse before the furnishing is 

 proceeded with, because a saddle cai\not possibly be perfect when the 

 foundation of the structure shall prove defective, and any error is more 

 easily corrected before the article be further complicated. 



Nevertheless, it is obvious folly to have a saddle or a harness fitted to 

 a quadruped while the body is loaded with fat, as the majority of horses 

 are when fresh from the dealer's yard. At first no part should be accu- 

 rately adjusted, but margin should be allowed for those subsequent alter- 

 ations which are always imperative. After three or four months the 

 dealer's "make up" usually subsides. Then each article will require to 

 be overlooked, and may be amended to the animal's form, which probably 

 will be preserved after it has been taken into regular work. 



The choice of leather is of primary importance to the manufacturer of, 

 and to the dealer in, equine furniture. After the goods are made up, no 

 man, excepting he be a regular workman, can possibly form an opinion 

 concerning the material of which it is composed. Certain tradesmen, 

 not of questionable respectability, are in the habit of ticketing cheap arti- 

 cles to entrap chance customers. The dealers, however, do not always 

 know the precise nature of the trash which they become the means of 

 circulating. They, nevertheless, must guess its character, for it is bought 



