Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/478

444&#93; cumstance deserves particular no- tice — As these carts had for many years been the object of ridicule, Mr. offered a bet to one or" his prejudiced neighbours, that ould load a waggon, till five horses could not stir with it ; and Mr engaged to carry away that load with ease, in his carts, with four of the same horses ; but the confidence, which his antago- nist possessed in waggons, would not allow him to accept the offer;

The infinite benefit, concludes Mr., of which these carts would be to the roads, if their use should become general, may be easily conceived. In all the exa- minations before Committees of the House of Commons, as well as in most of the treatises published on the subject, it has been admit- ted that no police or management can keep the roads in repair, while such vast weights are permitted to be drawn in a single carriage. Par- liament has been made so sensible of this fact, that repeated acts have been passed, by which the weight of waggons was limited, and a certain breadth of the wheels en- joined. Experience, however, has proved, that both are insufficient, and that the only method of effect- ing a favourable change, would be to prohibit numerous teams. Let every man carry whatever weight he pleases in a one-horse cart, and pay a light toil ; let the load of a two-horse cart be limited, and the toll increased; farther lessening the weight, and raising the toll, when four horses are employed; and thus advancing the turnpike expences fore very additional horse, till it amounts nearly to a prohibi- tion. If such a plan were to be adopted, we should soon see all our roads in an improved state. Rollers have, indeed, been greatly indulged both in weight and toll; but this was a preposterous mea- sure, for a roller will crash a peb- ble to dust, as well as a wheel, and the badness of roads mast be attributed to the materials being reduced to powder, almost as soon as laid on, and either blown away in dust, or carried off in mud. Having followed some of 's waggons, and observed the effect,

Mr. is persuaded, that the roller is more detrimental to the road than nine-inch- wheels. In such an inquiry, facts only can de- cide the. question : the Irish roads are made at an expence beyond comparison less than the English, and were, at the time he visited that country, greatly superior to those in England. This difference, in his opinion, must be attributed entirely to the use of one-horse carts, as he has explained in his "Tour of Ireland?" a year would be saved in England, if these carts were so favoured in road-acts, as to ensure a great decrease of wag- gons." On the whole, he ven- tures to recommend the use of one- horse carts to his brother farmers, with that confidence which ought to arise solely from numerous and varied experiments.

Having concluded the subject of single-horse carts, we shall only observe, for the information of those, who employ teams with two-wheeled carriages, that several use- ful implements have lately been invented, for the more effectual stopping of such carts, in de- scending steep hills, and likewise for taking off the increased weight thrown on the shaft horse's back in all descents. A description of these excellent contrivances, illus-