292 FARM MOTORS 



times doing more work than necessary. In fact, a 

 certain amount of effort is required for the horse to 

 stand or to walk even if he does no work at all. This 

 has led men to think that if the hitch could be so ar- 

 ranged as to relieve the horse entirely of neck weight at 

 times or even raise his trace the horse would be able 

 to accomplish more in a day of a given length. In fact, 

 it might be even an advantage to carry part of the weight 

 of the horse. Although not a parallel case, it is some- 

 times pointed out that a man can go farther in a day when 

 mounted on a bicycle than when walking. Walking in 

 itself, both for man and beast, is labor, and in fact walk- 

 ing is like riding a wheel polygonal in form, and each time 

 the wheel is rolled over a corner, the entire load must be 

 lifted only to drop again as the corner is passed. Whether 

 or not there are any possibilities in the development of a 

 device along this line to conserve the energy of the horse 

 we do not know; however, the argument seems very 

 good. Mr. Brigg, of England, has devised an appliance 

 for applying to vehicles with thills which will in a meas- 

 ure accomplish the result referred to ; that is, the horse on 

 beginning to pull will be gradually loaded down, thus per- 

 mitting him to overcome a greater resistance. 



412. Capacity of the horse. The amount of work a 

 certain horse is able to do in a day is practically a con- 

 stant. Large horses are able to do more work than 

 smaller ones, but a given horse can do only about so much 

 work in a day even if he is given a long or a short time 

 in which to do it. Not only is the ability to do work 

 dependent upon the size, but also upon the natural 

 strength, breed, health, food, environment, climate, adap- 

 tation of the load, and training of the horse. A horse 

 with maximum load does minimum work, and when trav- 

 eling at maximum speed he can carry no load. At an 



