230 Advantages of One-horse Carts over Waggons. 
without stopping the horses, and takes all the weight off the horse's 
back completely, and drags slightly, or severely, according as the 
hill is very steep, or moderately so. One such drag I have in- 
vented myself.* 
The next work that comes on my farm is the harvesting of corn ; 
and as I have now fixed a plank, 11 inches wide by 2 inches 
thick (for the emptier to stand on), which rests upon the arches 
that keep the load off the wheels, by this means the man is 
raised above 5 feet from the ground, while pitching the bottom 
of the load, giving nearly all the advantage in height of wag- 
gons in the stackyard, and still retaining all the advantages of 
lowness in the field. 
In proof of the pitching in stackyard and in field being alike, 
I always pay a halfpenny per hundred sheaves in field, the same 
loading, and the same repitching on stack in stackyard, and I 
have all my stacks raised 14 feet from foundation before I have 
the head or roof begun to be made ; but I generally have a 
second stack begun, whenever the first is 12 feet high, and one 
man pitches the highest part of each load on the high stack, until 
the other load arrives, then he goes and pitches the remainder on 
the new stack ; the other pitcher beginning to pitch the newly 
arrived load on the high stack. By this plan the horses are less 
* My drag is merely a rest with a slipper fixed to the foot, the same 
as those used on waggon wheels, only cast with a hole or socket to receive 
the rest in place of a groove to receive the wheel. The rest is made in 
the form of the letter T, with the ends of the cross inserted into a socket 
or thimble fixed to the shafts of the cart, the near or left side socket or 
thimble being fixed 6 inches from the axle, and the right or off side 
socket or thimble fixed 3 feet G inches from the axle, which causes the 
drag, when raised, to come up to the outside of the near shaft, where there 
is a hook to hang it to. The drag-chain is fixed to the centre of the front 
bar, between the shafts, which should just be long enough to allow the 
rest to come to tlie perpendicular. There is also a small chain or cord 
fixed to the slipper, which the driver, by pulling and raising (he shafts at 
the same time, causes the rest to rise, which he then hangs upon the hook. 
When he wishes to apply it, he unhooks it, when it falls to the ground, 
when by raising the shafts the rest comes to the perpendicular, and re- 
ceives all the weight that was on the horse's back, along with the increase 
caused by the rest's being so near the axle, so that it will be nearly double 
the weight borne by the horse. The chani attached to the slijjper and 
fixed to the front bar between the shalts preventing the rest from getting 
beyond the perpendicular, the weight upon the slipper being increased in 
proportion to the steepness of the hill, the increase of weight causing an 
increase of friction upon the slipper, therefore increasing its stoppin:^ 
power. Also the weight of draft caused by the friction is brought to bear 
upon it through the medium of the chain attached to the front bar, whicli 
of course is also increased with the steejjness of the hill descended. 
N.H. — CJenllemen wishing to see these drags and carts with self-actioned 
backs, invented by me, may do so by visiting Mr. .John Nefhercot, Pells 
Farm, Greenfoid, Middlesex, and my farm at Naseby, Norlliamptonshire. 
