ver of the horse. Hence eight horses, or even
four, or two can do things on the road that an eight horse-power
gasoline machine cannot do; for the gasoline machine cannot
concentrate all its power into the exertion of a few moments. If it
is capable of lifting a given load up a given grade at a certain
speed on its lowest gear, it cannot lift twice the load up the same
grade, or the same load up a steeper grade in double the time, for
its resources are exhausted when the limit of the power developed
through the lowest gear is reached. The grade may be only a mud
hole, out of which the rear wheels have to rise only two feet to be
free, but it is as fatal to progress as a hill a mile long.

Of course it is always possible to race the engine, throw in the
clutch, and gain some power from the momentum of the fly-wheel,
and many a bad place may be surmounted step by step in this way;
but this process has its limitations also, and the fact remains
that with a gasoline machine it is possible to carry a given load
only so fast, but if the machine moves it all, it will continue to
move on until the load is increased, or the road changes for the
worse.

When the farmer hears of an eight horse-power machine he thinks of
the wonderful things eight good horses can do on the road, and is
surprised when the machine fails to go up hills that teams travel
every day; he does not understand it, and wonders where the power
comes in. He is not enough of a mechanic to reflect that the eight
horse-power is demonstrated in the carrying of a ton over average
roads one hundred and fifty miles in ten hours, something eight
horses could not possibly do.

Just as we were entering the valley of Lebanon, beyond the village
of Brainerd, while going down a slight descent, my Companion
exclaimed,--

"The wheel is coming off." I threw out the clutch, applied the
brake, looked, and saw the left front wheel roll gracefully and
quite deliberately out from under the big metal mud guard; the
carriage settled down at that corner, and the end of the axle
ploughed a furrow in the road for a few feet, when we came to a
stop.

The steering-head had broken short off at the inside of the hub.
We were not going very fast at the time, and the heavy metal mud
guard which caught the wheel, acting as a huge brake, saved us
from a bad smash.

On examination, the shank of the steering-head was found to
contain two large flaws, which reduced its strength more than