178 State of Agriculture in Northumberland. 



still more severe^ although the work is not so heavy. Each farm 

 has one or two pairs of a heavier description for carting corn to 

 market^ carrying coals, &c., which horses have frequently to 

 travel from '60 to 40 miles in a day when delivering corn to the 

 seaports. 



The implements are such as are used generally in the south of 

 Scotland: threshing-machines are universal. In a country with 

 an undulating surface and well supplied with streams, a supply 

 of water can often -be obtained for working a machine, to which 

 it is usual to add a pair of common mill-stones, to bruise corn for 

 horses and pigs. When water cannot be had, steam is now in 

 general use : the winnowing process is also worked by the water 

 or steam-power, in connexion with other machinery. For carry- 

 ing corn and hay, long carts are used, which are commonly drawn 

 by two horses at length, and sometimes by one : they are close 

 at bottom, but with railed ends and sides, and very light ; for 

 carrying loads upon turnpikes the single-horse Scotch-cart is 

 used. One man drives two at once, the horse in the latter being 

 fastened by a light chain attached to the former, and joined to a 

 broad belt round his neck. The carts used on the farm are of the 

 same construction, but larger, and with moveable bodies, so as to 

 set up for the purpose of turning out their load at once, and with 

 an additional sideboard to put on, for carting manure, turnips, 

 and any bulky article ; the wheels and axles of these are changed 

 at pleasure to the harvest- carts ; for as the farm-horses cannot 

 occupy both carts at once, a double set of wheels and axles is 

 unnecessary. The question has often been discussed as to the 

 relative draught between one-horse carts and waggons, and many 

 circumstances tend to decide in favour of the former, such as the 

 lightness of the carriage, the smaller degree of friction from the 

 division of the loads into several parts, the necessity for each 

 horse doing his own work instead of imposing upon his neighbour, 

 his nearness to the load, and the saving to roads : but, independ- 

 ent of this question altogether, the great superiority of such carts 

 where quick motion is required, turning, loading, and unloading, 

 and especially the conveying and depositing manure in turnip- 

 drills, and in carting off turnips, as already described under their 

 respective heads, must be acknowledged. And as the same, or 

 some of the same which are employed upon the farm, may also be 

 used when required upon the roads, the saving of a double set of 

 carriages, even admitting some inferiority in one respect, would 

 fully warrant their use. 



The plough is the Scotch iron swing-plough drawn by two 

 horses abreast, the man who holds the plough driving them with 

 reins, but chiefly by speaking to them. Ploughs with wheels to 

 regulate the depth of the furrow have never been used, and in 



