for his teams, a few milk cows for the dairy sup- 
ply of his own establishment, and a few black 
cattle in winter for treading his straw into man- 
ure; and he purchases the cows and the straw- 
treaders, just when they are needed, and sells 
them as soon as they have served their tempo- 
rary purposes. His farm-stead contains but mea- 
gre and secondary accommodation for live-stock; 
yet, as a main object is the conversion of the 
enormous quantities of straw into manure, the 
stables and the cattle-yards ought to stand in 
immediate juxtaposition with the straw-barn. 
Much of the management of his farm, particu- 
| larly during winter and spring, consists in .effi- 
cient surface-draining, to prevent the stagnation 
of water upon its retentive or slowly-percolating 
soil; and wherever covered drains for absorbing 
_ and carrying off surplus water may be thought 
unsuitable, the spade must be diligently applied, 
after every heavy fall of rain, for clearing and 
scouring the furrows. Grass is grown on but a 
small proportion of a carse farm ; and, even when 
grown, it remains only one year, and is used 
wholly for forage. The rotation of crops, and 
the whole system of grain husbandry, must, 
of course, be modified by reference to the pecu- 
liar nature of the soil, and ought to be regulated 
with a view to a maximum produce of wheat. 
CART. A two-wheeled carriage, drawn gen- 
erally by one horse, but sometimes by two, and 
used for the conveyance of all kinds of heavy ar- 
ticles, whether on the farm or on the highway. 
Carts are exceedingly various in construction ; 
and while some kinds derive their peculiarities 
from specific adaptation to particular purposes, 
others derive them from caprice, custom, or 
bungling contrivance. The waggons so common 
in most of the agricultural districts of England 
are often, but improperly, termed carts, and will 
be noticed in the article Waccon; and two ve- 
hicles, the slide car and the Irish car, though not 
in themselves carts, are used instead of them, 
and may here be briefly noticed. 
The slide-car or drag-cart has some resemblance 
to the body of a cart without wheels; it is used 
in mountainous districts of Wales and Scotland, 
where roads do not exist, and where wheels would 
be of no service ; and it may be regarded as the 
original or typal form of the cart group of ve- 
hicles. “It consists of two strong poles from 
twelve to fifteen feet long, connected by cross 
pieces fixed at right angles to them, by mortising 
| or pinning, so that the poles may be two or three 
feet apart. About eighteen inches of the poles 
| project beyond the lowest cross-piece, the ends 
resting on the ground. The other ends of the 
poles form the shafts for the horse to draw by. 
The load is placed on the cross pieces, over which 
boards are sometimes nailed, for the purpose of 
| carrying stones, or such things as might fall 
through between the cross bars: it then resem- 
bles the body of a cart taken off the wheels. The 
horse bears one end of the drag-cart by a strap 
CART. 
over his back, and drags it on by means of a 
common cart-collar or a breast-strap. This ve- 
hicle is extremely useful in steep and rough de- 
scents, especially to draw stones from quarries, 
and can be made of rough poles at little or no 
expense. Pieces of hard wood fixed under the 
ends of the poles, and renewed as they wear out, 
will prevent the ends of the drag-cart from wear- 
ing away, and will allow it to slide along more 
easily.” —[ Dictionary of the Farm.| This simple 
vehicle is very effective in conveying peats from 
the highland bogs, and in conveying home hill- 
harvestings over rugged or very uneven ground; 
and, in some instances, it is furnished at the 
extremity of its shafts with a pair of low timber 
wheels in lieu of the ordinary wooden slippers. 
The Irish car consists of a platform, two shafts, 
and a pair of wheels; with the last so adjusted 
as to move beneath the platform in the same man- 
ner as those of a railway carriage. The platform, 
in some instances, is horizontal; and in others, is 
oblique and raised behind, so as to hold what the 
Irish calla kish. Blocks of wood are fixed be- 
low the middle part of the platform, and are 
bored in their lower part with holes to admit the | 
ends of the axle, so as to let the wheels revolve 
below the platform. The simplest and most 
common kind of wheels are circular disks of 
wood, formed either by a junction of blocks or a 
nailing together of pieces of plank, and sawing 
them into circular outline. Iron tires are fixed 
on the periphery of the wheels; the axles are 
sometimes bars of iron, but far more commonly 
beams of wood, and are made tight to the wheels ; 
and two iron pins or strong nails are driven ob- 
liquely into the blocks so as to keep the axles in 
their place. Cars for conveying lime or manure 
have a boarded platform and a frame, and are | 
called box-cars; and some of this description, | 
constructed in an improved or superior manner, 
with four-spoked wheels, were used in Leicester- 
shire by Bakewell, and may occasionally be seen 
in some other parts of England. The Irish car, 
in any of its ordinary forms, is recommended by 
its great cheapness, its facility of being laden, 
its adaptation to the light, low horses of Ireland, 
its suitableness for mountain roads, and its very 
small liability to overturns or collisions; but it 
has the serious disadvantages of small capacity 
of load, small facility of unloading, and great 
difficulty of making a rapid curve or sudden turn 
in the direction of its motion. 
The tilt-cart, coup-cart, or common Scotch cart, 
is by far the most important vehicle of its class 
in Scotland, and has, for some time past, been 
rapidly finding its way into favour in England, 
and, if fairly considered as to the great aggregate 
of its advantages and adaptations, must be re- 
garded by every person as the most suitable 
draught-vehicle for all ordinary farms in almost 
all parts of the world. In the lowlands of Scot- 
land, it is employed for nine-tenths of all the 
carriage on farms, or connected with agriculture, 
7G Rall 
