370 
CARTS, DRAYS, AND OTHER THINGS. 
four day . old, and then sells them to the butcher. 
(Query. What for? Do they feed congress¬ 
men upon such delicate young veal ?) As he 
feeds no hay, he has quantities for sale. It 
brings him from $15 to $20 a ton, in the city— 
seven miles’ hauling. 
Good Taste in Furniture .—Some of the hand¬ 
somest I ever saw was at Riversdale, made of 
oak, which the proprietor had sawed in his own 
mill, and made into furniture, to order. It is 
not only good and handsome, but is home- 
manufactured, of home-grown timber, and that 
adds to its real value, in the eyes of all home¬ 
bred Americans. 
CARTS, DRAYS, AND OTHER THINGS. 
In almost every town, there is some peculiar¬ 
ity about the vehicles to distinguish them from 
any other place. In New Orleans and New York, 
the drays are similar—with stout shafts, broad- 
boarded beds and projecting tail pieces and low 
strong wheels—a very convenient vehicle for 
the purpose it is used. In contrast with 
these, are the drays of Montreal and Quebec. 
Fancy a high pair of wheels, not stout, upon 
which is mounted a long narrow ladder with a 
very diminutive specimen of a horse attached 
to one end, no matter which, and the whole 
concern the most inconvenient, uncouth, unap¬ 
propriate affair for the purpose that could be 
designed, and you have a Canadian dray. 
In Louisiana, you may see many carts drawn 
by three mules a-breast, having wheels six or 
seven feet high, with enormous great boxes con¬ 
taining a travelling dry-goods store. Similar 
ones are used upon plantations. To load any 
heavy article into one, requires a good deal 
of strength and engineering. They are as un¬ 
fit for a farm cart as a Canadian dray. 
Contrast with these a Canada cart; such as I 
first saw at Coburg, upon lake Ontario. The 
wheels are about four feet or four and a half 
high, with a crooked iron axle, so that the bed is 
hung within six inches of the ground. The 
shafts are attached to the cross bar of the for¬ 
ward end. The hind end is moveable. The 
convenience of rolling barrels and bales in and 
out of one of these carts can readily be seen; 
and upon hard ground or plank roads, or a long 
wharf like that of Coburg, they must be ex¬ 
tremely convenient and run just as well as 
though the load were mounted up in the air as 
high as the back of an elephant. There is 
common sense and utility in such carts for 
many situations, A very common sight in 
Canada are dog carts, and it is very surprising 
to see what large vehicles they are, and what 
loads a couple of stout dogs will carry. I 
doubt however, the utility. 
Another very common vehicle, in Quebec, is 
the “ caleche.” It is somewhat like the body of 
an old-fashioned gig, without the top. In place 
of the dash board is the driver’s seat; so there 
is room for two inside passengers, It is use¬ 
less for me to tell you how they drive up and 
down these crooked mountain streets and lanes 
barely wide enough for two of these break-neck 
furies to pass. The thing must be seen to be 
believed. Don’t offer to ride in one, unless your 
life is insured for the benefit of your family or 
some charitable institution and you feel quite 
willing to have your neck broken for the pro¬ 
motion of the happiness of those you leave be¬ 
hind you—a good way behind, if you ride long 
at the usual speed. 
Upon the farm of Capt. Rhodes, near Quebec, 
I saw a wagon that had some new features about 
it, at least so to me, though common in England, 
I believe. Forward of the axle, in place of the 
horses, is a frame as wide and as far forward as 
the bed, with a convenient iron work to at¬ 
tach one or two pair of shafts. The conve¬ 
nience of the plan is alleged to be, that, in many 
cases, the wagon can be used with one horse to 
advantage—that the two pairs of shafts, are 
preferable to a tongue, because the cart harness, 
(without traces,) answers for the wagon, saving- 
time in shifting and expense of extra harness. 
The bed of this wagon is made as wide as it 
can be between the wheels and for convenience 
of turning, a jog is made upon each side where 
the forward wheels would strike, so it can turn 
very short and thus gives more room inside. 
I have no doubt but this wagon is worthy of 
imitation; as, for instance, when required to be 
taken to the potato field in the morning to be 
filled during the day, and to be removed two or 
three times within the time, one horse can do it 
as well as two. In bringing home a load of 
wood, as it is all the way descending from “the 
bush,” (as all woodland is called in Canada,) 
Capt. R., finds one horse will do the work just 
as well as two. And so it is with many other 
things. Thq only objection I see to working 
two horses in shafts, is, that each works inde¬ 
pendent of the other. But for some situations, 
these and the Coburg carts, are both worthy an 
introduction in a more southern latitude. And 
much to the advantage of the Canadians, par¬ 
ticularly about Quebec, would be an introduc¬ 
tion of some of our very neat, strong, and light 
road wagons, in place of the universal little one- 
horse cart. 
As for the Montreal drays, no one who has ev¬ 
er seen a different kind, would continue to use 
such an awkward contrivance unless as strong¬ 
ly wedded to ignorance and stupidity as are 
some of the cultivators of American soil, who 
still continue the use of implements equally 
awkward and inappropriate for the purpose, as 
ladder drays or dog carts, and some other 
things that they laugh at their neighbors for 
using. Sodqn, 
Note by the Editor ,—.“Uncle Solon,” like many 
of his travelled countrymen, forgetteth the ways 
of his father land, while describing a foreign 
one. Surely he has not forgotten the peculiar¬ 
ities of the old Boston dray, or “ truck,” with 
shafts large and long enough for the sills of a 
respectable-sized house; nor the enormous load 
often seen upon one, of five or six hogsheads of 
sugar, drawn by as many horses. A long train 
of these great, uncouth-looking vehicles, wind¬ 
ing through some of the narrow, crooked lanes, 
peculiar to Boston, is very suggestive of some¬ 
thing somewhat seq-serpentish —the hogsheads an- 
