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IMPLEMENTS OP HUSBANOllY

such as the in-gathering of corn and hay, were performed witha sledge, which consisted of two shafts or limbers, reachingfrom the collar on the horse’s neck, in a sloping directiondown to the ground, having cross spars, which connectedtheir hinder part, and served as a bottom; there were alsoseveral erect rods placed near the back end, to keep on theload. The sledge, it seems, succeeded the hurdle, and evi-dently required some sort of road ; whereas the hurdle couldbe used wherever it was possible for a horse to walk. Insteadof carts, with wheels revolving on the axle, that clumsy ma-chine, in which the wheels were fixed upon its arms, wasvery common in many parts of the country. These wheelshad no naves, spokes, or felloes 5 they were composed of threesections, of solid plank, fastened together and rounded; theaxle was fixed in the centre going through the middle sec-tion. The shafts had each two pins of wood placed in theirunder-side, that embraced the axle, and, when drawn for-ward, made these awkward wheels tumble along; from whichcircumstance they were called tumblers. This sort of imple-ment is still made use of in some districts of the Highlandsand islands, especially where the roads are so rugged and un-even, as to render the use of proper carts impracticable j butthey are now going out of use, where the public roads, orbye-roads in any farm, are passable with carts of a better con-struction. They were only employed through necessity,arising from the want of proper roads, with other peculiarcircumstances of the country, and therefore must disappearwhen that necessity is removed. It is evident, that one im-provement leads to another; for no sooner were the roadsin North Britain attended to, than wheel-carriages and cartswere introduced; and no sooner was improved husbandrylearned by common farmers, from observing the practice offarmers in more highly cultivated counties, than they wereemulous to follow the example set before then), not only inthe construction of the various machines and tools they em-ployed, but also in the execution of their work. In some se-