REVIEW — N E W- IN V E N T E D H A M E S . 
G87 
the horse working in harness with the improved hames, we found 
that the embrace the collar received from the draft coming from 
three points instead of from one, tended materially to confine it 
against the shoulder; and to prevent that injurious rocking of the 
one on the other which is the cause of the wringing and excori- 
ation of so many shoulders where the collar does not happen to sit 
close at every part : to say nothing about the comparative steadi- 
ness and evenness of pull the horse derives from such spread and 
multiplication of the points of draft. While the pull is made but 
from one point alone, as in the common hames, it requires great 
nicety to adjust the situation of it, so that the collar shall not tilt 
upon the shoulder, either forwards or backwards : with the im- 
proved hames it cannot tilt; and, moreover, the draft may be so 
regulated by the three adjusting straps, coming from the eyes of 
the tugs, that the stress may be thrown either upwards or down- 
wards, according as desired ; and in this manner any sore or galled 
place upon the shoulder may be in a measure relieved from the 
pressure of the main pull, 
Mr. Bencraft, in his prospectus, in our opinion, has run into the 
common and, perhaps, veniable error of inventors, in stating so 
much as he has done : if he would take our advice, he would revise 
the said manifesto, and shape it more in accordance with matter of 
fact and the results of experience. We have praised his in- 
vention on three accounts, and they are important ones : viz. 
1st. The embrace of the collar, and the consequent prevention of 
its rocking upon the shoulder during the action of the shoulder- 
blades and shoulder-bones. 2dly. The equalization of the pressure 
of the collar against every part of the shoulder, and consequent 
less liability to injure any particular spot. 3dly. The regulation 
of the pressure in that manner that it may be thrown most either 
upon the upper or upon the lower part of the shoulder. Against 
these advantages may be set the disadvantages of the compara- 
tive weightiness of the patent hames, and the liability of the me- 
tallic buckles about them to excoriate the horse's shoulder behind 
the collar, as has been done to our own horse ; on which ac- 
count we much desire that some contrivance could be substi- 
tuted for the naked buckles, and then we should decidedly prefer 
the patent hames to the common ones. 
