too light to carry the ordinary load of a
six-mule team. At the end of the war it was shown that the army pattern
wagon had been worked more, had been repaired less, and was in better
condition than any other wagon used. I refer now to those made in
Philadelphia, by Wilson & Childs, or Wilson, Childs & Co. They are known
in the army as the Wilson wagon. The very best place to test the
durability of a wagon is on the plains. Run it there, one summer, when
there is but little wet weather, where there are all kinds of roads to
travel on and loads to carry, and if it stands that it will stand any
thing. The wagon-brake, instead of the lock-chain, is a great and very
valuable improvement made during the War. Having a brake on the wagon
saves the time and trouble of stopping at the top of every hill to lock
the wheels, and again at the bottom to unlock them. Officers of the army
know how much trouble this used to cause, how it used to block up the
roads, and delay the movements of troops impatient to get ahead. The
lock-chain ground out the wagon tire in one spot. The brake saves that;
and it also saves the animal's neck from that bruising and chafing
incident to the dead strain that was required when dragging the locked
wheel.

There is another difficulty that has been overcome by the wagon-brake.
In stopping to lock wheels on the top of a hill, your train get into
disorder. In most cases, when trains are moving on the road, there is a
space of ten or fifteen feet between the wagons. Each team, then, will
naturally close up that space as it comes to the place for halting to
lock. Now, about the time the first teamster gets his wheel locked, the
one in the rear of him is dismounting for the same purpose. This being
repeated along the train, it is not difficult to see how the space must
increase, and irregularity follow. The more wagons you have to lock with
the drag-chain, the further you get the teams apart. When you have a
large body of wagons moving together, it naturally follows that, with
such a halt as this, the teams in the rear must make twenty-five halts,
or stops, and starts, for everyone that the head team makes.

When the teamster driving the second team gets ready to lock, the first,
or head team, starts up. This excites the mule of the second to do the
same, and so all along the train. This irritates the teamster, and he is
compelled to run up and catch the wheel-mules by the head, to make them
stop, so that he