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IMPLEMENTS OP HUSBANDRY

being occasionally added, which is sometimes the practice,for enlarging the cart, it is made to contain a greater loadwhen necessary. This is certainly the best means of makingthe cart contain a greater quantity at once; as these side-boards can easily be fixed on or taken off at pleasure.

The carts or wheel-carriages employed in husbandry areof various dimensions, and different forms, but are often con-structed without sufficient attention to the sort of materials tobe carried, or the nature of the roads and grounds on whichthey are to be employed. It appears, that the first carts madeuse of in North Britain were small, and generally drawn byone horse; in the lower districts, however, large carts havebeen since introduced, drawn by two horses. A person whohas not made exact trial of these different carts, if he wouldjudge from experience, must attend to the practice of thosewho are chiefly employed in carrying goods from one place toanother. Among these people, a cart drawn by two horsesis seldom to be seen; indeed, in many places of the country,where two-horse carts were formerly employed, one-horsecarts are now generally preferred, two of them being alwaysdriven by one man.

It becomes, therefore, a proper inquiry, whether one largecart, drawn by two horses, or two small carts, each drawn byone horse, be most advantageous. No doubt one large cart, can be more cheaply purchased than two small ones; but thesmall carts, carrying less weight, will perhaps last longer, andrequire less repair. The expence of working is the same, forboth require two horses and a driver; it may, however, beobserved, that in the larger cart, the two horses have onlythe friction of two wheels to overcome, whereas the samenumber of horses have the friction of four wheels in the twosmaller ones. But the difference of friction, perhaps, maynot be so great as at first sight it appears; because the smallercarts having less weight to carry, the axle-arms on which thewheels revolve may be made smaller, in proportion to theweight they have to carry, by which means the friction will