AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOR THE 
UTai-iii, Grarden, and. UT on seTi old. 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL., MOST USEFUL, AN H MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.”— Washington.. 
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Entered according to Act of Congress, in August, 1875, by the Orange Judd Company, at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
VOLUME XXXIV.—No. 9. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1875. NEW SERIES—No. 344. 
THE TRAIN BLACKSMITH. — Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
Every wagon train, whether it belongs to the 
Quarter Master’s Department of the army, engaged 
in carrying supplies to the frontier military posts, 
or a trader’s train, such as may still be seen in 
Texas, New Mexico, and other states and terri¬ 
tories, where railroads have not superseded them, 
has a blacksmith. In the regular army train there 
is the forge wagon, a regular blacksmith shop 
upon wheels, but in smaller or private trains, the 
portable forge and the blacksmith’s kit, are stored 
in an ordinary wagon. Those who have never 
traveled across the elevated plateaus west of the 
Mississippi, where the rarified air is free from 
moisture, can have any idea of the manner in 
which everything made of wood will shrink. A 
bucket that has been used in the morning, will dry 
so much during the day, that unless care he taken, 
it will fall to pieces by night. Wagons made at 
the best establishments, where every particle of 
wood used in building them, was first thoroughly 
kiln-dried, will soon need to have all the irons set 
up, and the tires soon re-set. The train blacksmith 
has an easy time on the march, but as soon as the 
train encamps at its end, his work begins, and he 
often finds all that he can do by working late at 
night, and when there is a day of rest in camp, it 
is far from being a day of rest for him. Every 
teamster has a job for the smith, either about his 
wagon or mules, which often need to he shod, and 
a lively time it sometimes makes; then those who 
have saddle horses want them shod, and even the 
cooks come along with a useless camp kettle, which 
a rivet will restore to its former servicable condi¬ 
tion, and all contribute to make the extemporized 
smithy a busy place. The artist, Mr. Cary, has 
drawn for the above engraving, a scene which, to 
those who have “ crossed the plains,” must recall 
many an encampment. The very efficient looking 
blacksmith is not quite up to the times, or he 
would have one of the forges with rotary blowers, 
figured in the Agriculturist for May last, which 
have no bellows to dry up and become useless. 
