Improvement in the Mode of Attaching Horses to Waggons. 249 
Nothing indeed can be more opposed to reason and good sense than 
the manner of yoking several horses in tandem that is usually practised 
both for carts and waggons, particularly in the south of England. 
In the first place the shafts are often too much elevated, and then the 
shaft-horse is borne to the ground by the efforts of those that precede 
him, or he is made to swerve from side to side by the alternate jolting of 
the wheels, or by the leaders varying from the straight line of traction. 
In the case of four-wheeled waggons with horses yoked abreast, the 
traces of each horse are always fixed to the splmter-bar ; it is more 
than difScult for the driver to ascertain if all his horses are exerting 
their strength together, and it is almost impossible for him, even with 
the utmost care, to force them to do so. 
A much better method of yoking has been applied for ages past to the 
plough, viz., that of the swing-bar ; but, strange to say, this system has 
not been adopted for carriages, with the exception of the leaders of stage- 
coaches ; and this only proves that convenience, or we may say neces- 
sity, has been the primary cause of its being adopted at all, and not any 
sense of the superior mechanical arrangement of the system. 
A little reflection will however show that this arrangement is better 
adapted than any other to produce simultaneous action, each horse being 
so placed respectively to his neighbour as to operate on a balance-beam, 
and it is self-evident that neither can draw unless the other acts as a 
, counterpoise : the result is that the full and united force of the team is 
I obtained for the purposes of traction. 
For centuries past this system has been successfully applied in Bel- 
gium to the yoking of horses to four-wheeled waggons ; and I could cite 
I various instances of great loads conveyed in that manner, but will only 
I mention a single instance of a load of goods which I myself saw weighed, 
and which was brought from Antwerp to the neighbourhood of Mons, a 
distance of about 72 miles. The waggon was a very heavy one, with 
the wheel-tires 8 inches in breadth, and was drawn by five horses, and 
the load weighed fully 14 tons. Now when we take into consideration 
that several considerable acclivities had to be surmounted, at only two 
of which spare horses had been used, this example alone is sufBcient to 
demonstrate the evident superiority of this system of traction. Doubt- 
less the paved roads offer less friction than our usual macadamized 
ones, but this advantage will not account for the marked superiority of 
this load, which amounts, including the weight of the waggon, to about 
3^ tons per horse. 
I may observe that in Belgium the load is strictly linuted by law in 
jiroportion to the breadth of the tires, and that a greater load tlian that 
above cited could not be conveyed during fresh weather; but instances 
have occurred of much heavier weights being drawn by the same 
number of horses, during hard frosts, when no injury can be done to the 
roads. 
The horses usually employed on the road are of the old Flanders 
breed, the same as the common dray-horse in London, but evidently in- 
ferior to them in strength and weight. 
Waggons of tlie same nature, but of a lighter construction, are also 
VOL. VI. 
s 
