Wagon, a four-wheeled vehicle used for the transportation of persons or heavy articles. The wagon occupies an intermediate position between the cart and the buggy, but the lines of division are not definite. Wagon is a Scandinavian word. The corresponding English term is wain, still retained in Charles's wain, etc. In this country the commonly recognized type is the American farm wagon. It has grown out of the English wagon, a heavy, strongly built affair in which, before railroads superseded the picturesque, the carter carried produce up to London town and freight home again. British farm hauling was done and is done yet largely by means of two-wheeled carts. The earliest American wagons were modeled on the English carter's freight wagon. The Conestoga wagon for which the Cumberland road and other highways to the west were built, and the trader's wagon, which plied on the Santa Fe trail, were heavy, wooden affairs. The wagon without a load was enough for one team to draw. From the Conestoga to start with, the American lumber wagon has been evolved. The general plan of a four-wheeled vehicle, having the fore wheels smaller than the hind pair, and their axle swiveled to the front bolster to facilitate turning, has been retained, but the utmost skill of the wagon-maker has been put forth to combine lightness and strength. It has been found that the wooden axle, strengthened by strips of metal, is lighter than iron, has equal strength, and that it is able to stand the jar and jolt of rough roads better than one made wholly of metal. The timber found most suitable for axle and wheel work is the hickory. A hickory wagon is the wagon the farmer buys if he can get it, but the clearing away of our hardwood forests and the demand for hickory vehicle stock has almost exhausted the supply. Oak, ash, and elm are used as substitutes. Birch hubs are on the market, but they are a poor substitute for old hickory. Wagon making is an extensive industry, There are nearly 6,000,000 farms in the United States. If we take into consideration the number of wagons on these farms, the number used in other occupations, as draying, teaming, lumbering, road-making, railroad building, quarrying, and the like, and take into consideration also the average life of a wagon and the consequent necessity, not only of supplying additional wagons, but of replacing the old ones, we are prepared for the statement that large wagon factories occupy hundreds of acres of ground. The principal factories are located in the hardwood region tributary to the Ohio River and the Great Lakes. Many manufacturers confine themselves to the production of parts which they sell to others. A large number of the early wagon-makers were both wheelwrights and blacksmiths. With his apprentices or help the wagonmaker wrought both wood and metal. The owner of the modern wagon factory, the larger concerns excepted, buys his hubs, his spokes, his felloes, his skeins, and other parts ready-made. He assembles the parts, as it is called, and puts them together. In this way, as in the case of sewing machines and many other articles, different makes of wagons are likely to be much the same save in paint and name. A feature that is receiving attention of late is the width of the tire. The wagons drawn by the 20-mule-teams to haul borax out of the Death Valley had tires fifteen inches in width. A bulletin issued by the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station has this to say: Numerous tests of the draft of wide and narrow tired wagons have been made at this station during the past two years, on macadam, gravel and dirt roads in all conditions, and on meadows, pastures and plowed fields, both wet and dry. The draft has been determined by means of a self-recording dynamometer. The net load was in every trial the same, viz., 2,000 pounds. Contrary to public expectation, in a large majority of eases the draft was materially less when tires six inches in width were used than when the tests were made with tires of standard width-1 1/2 inches. A summary of results follows: I. On macadam streets, as an average of the two trials made, a load of 2,518 pounds could have been hauled on the broad tires with the same draft that a load of 2,000 pounds required on the narrow tires. II. Gravel roads. In all conditions of the gravel road, except wet and sloppy on top, the draft of the broad-tired wagon was very much less than that of the narrow-tired wagon. Averaging the six trials, a load of 2,482 pounds could be hauled on the broad tires with the same draft required for a load of 2,000 pounds on the narrow tires. III. Dirt roads. When dry, hard and free from ruts and dust, 2,530 pounds could have been hauled on the broad tires with the same draft required for 2,000 pounds on the narrow tires. On clay road, with mud deep and drying on top and spongy underneath, a large number of tests showed uniformly favorable to the broad tire. The difference amounted to from 52 to 61 per cent, or about 3,200 pounds could have been hauled on the broad tires with the same draft required to draw 2,000 pounds on the narrow tires. In this condition of road the broad tires show to their greatest advantage. As the road dries and becomes firmer, the difference between the draft of the broad and narrow tires gradually diminishes until it reaches about 25 to 30 per cent on dry, hard, smooth dirt, gravel or macadam road, in favor of the broad tire. A large number of tests on meadows, pastures, stubble land, corn ground and plowed ground in every condition, from dry, hard and firm to very wet and soft, show, without a single exception, a large difference in draft in favor of the broad tires. This difference ranged from 17 to 120 per cent.