614 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



equally balanced on both sides. As we have before observed, this subject belongs more 

 properly to engineering than to agriculture, and therefore we shall confine ourselves to 

 railroads, as substitutes for, or as connected with, common country roads, (Trans. 

 Highl. Soc. vol. vi.) 



3787. In countries, tlie surfaces of which are rugged, or where it is difficult to obtain 

 water for lockage, where the weight of the articles of the produce is great in comparison 

 with their bulk, and where they are mostly to be conveyed from a higher to a lower 

 level in these cases, Telford observes, iron railways are, in general, preferable to canal 

 navigation. 



3788. On a railway well constructed, and laid with a declivity of fifty-five feet in a mile, 

 it is supposed that one horse vdll readily take down waggons containing from twelve to 

 fifteen tons, and bring back the same waggons witli four tons in them. Tliis declivity, 

 therefore, suits well, when the imports are only one fourth part of what is to be exported. 

 If the empty waggons only are to be brought back, the declivity may be made greater ; 

 or an additional horse applied on the returning journey will balance the increase of de- 

 clivity. If the length of the railway were to be considered, it may, it is supposed, with- 

 out much inconvenience, be varied from being level to a declivity of one inch in a yard ; 

 and by dividing the whole distance into separate stages, and providing the number of 

 horses suitable for each portion of railway, according to the distance and degree of de- 

 clivity, the whole operation may be carried on witla regularity and despatch. 



3789. Railways may be laid out so as to suit the surface of very irregular countries, at a 

 comparatively moderate expense. A railway may be constructed in a much more ex- 

 peditious manner than a navigable canal ; it may be introduced into many districts where 

 canals are wholly inapplicable ; and in case of any change in the working of mines, 

 pits, or manufactories, the rails may be taken up, and laid down again in new situations, 

 at no very great expense or trouble. 



3790. The whole load to be drawn by one horse upon railways was at first put into one 

 waggon ; but now, when the load is so much augmented, it has been found eligible to 

 divide it into many parts, so tliat no one waggon shall carry more than one or two tons ; 

 by this method the weight is so divided, that the pressure is never so great upon one 



point as to be in danger of too much 

 573 ^T^^^X 1 1 '~/aY ^^^ crushing the road; the carriages can be 



made much more limber and light in all 

 their parts {fig. 573.), and they are much 

 more easily moved, and more manageable 

 in all respects, than they otherwise would 

 have been. And another advantage of 

 this arrangement, which deserves to be 

 particularly adverted to, is, that it admits 

 of shifting the carriages, so as to leave a load, as it were, in parcels at different places 

 where they may be required, without trouble or expense. This, when it comes to be 

 fully understood and carried into practice, will be a convenience of inestimable value ; 

 a thing that has been always wanted, and never yet has been found, though it has been 

 diligently sought for. 



3791. Of the advantage of railways a striking proof is given by Anderson {Recre- 

 ations, ^c), in the case of one formed by Wilkes near Loughborough. Its extent was 

 about five miles, and it led from a coal-mine to a market. He found it so fully to 

 answer his expectations after it was finished, that he communicated to the Society of 

 Arts an account of some trials he had made of it, requesting that such of the members 

 of that respectable institution as were desirous of information on that head would do 

 him the honour to witness some experiments that he wished to make upon it for the in- 

 formation of the public. A committee of the members was accordingly deputed for that 

 purpose, and before them he showed that a moderate-sized horse, of about twenty pounds 

 value, could draw upon it with ease down hill (the descent being one foot in a hundred) 

 thirty-two tons, and without much difficulty forty-three, and seven tons up hill, inde- 

 pendent of the carriages. The doctor concludes from these facts, that upon a perfect 

 level a horse could draw vnth ease from ten to twenty tons. It is observed that Wilkes's 

 railway, on which the experiments were made, was, from local circumstances, laid upon 

 wooden sleepers, and is not so perfect as those done upon stone. But it is added, that 

 twenty tons constitute the load which such a horse could draw with ease, travelling at 

 the usual waggon rate, in boats upon a canal ; so that the number of horses required in 

 this way will not be much, if at all, greater than on a canal. Certain advantages attach 

 to this mode of conveyance, which do not so well apply to a canal, and vice versa ; but 

 it is not his intention to draw a parallel between these two modes of conveyance. Nobody 

 can entertain any doubt, he thinks, about the utility of canals where they are easily 

 practicable. He only wishes to point out this as an eligible mode of conveyance, where 

 canals cannot be conveniently adopted. 



J ' Lu^' U-* 



