Photos by Paul White:
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Wagons and trailers are force multipliers. If a man with a wheelbarrow can move 100 pounds, then this eight-year-old kid and his horse is capable of doing the work of twenty men.
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Two yards of manure might weigh 2000-to-3000 pounds.
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Track width of about 48" with little variation. I assume the "trucks" or running gear is standardized and produced in a factory.
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Most common length seems to be about 12' but wagons for transporting wooden poles might be 14' and wagons for transporting bricks might be 6' long.
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Not Paul White. Alamy stock photo showing brick wagon. Weight over-running horse on downgrades is probably an issue
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The most common set-up is to have 20" high sides that are not vertical and a pole along the top to act as a gunnel to stiffen the edge. It almost looks like a jon boat.
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Bonus Link: Livestock Guardian Dogs (in Romania)
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Those are gypsies. Most despised (for good reason) demographic in europe.
ReplyDeletePretty interesting to see an Alaska license plate on the back of the wagon in the first photo.
ReplyDeleteThat’s what I get for looking at tiny photos early in the morning before coffee. A closer look shows that it’s NOT an Alaska plate.
DeleteERJ, almost all of society (in The West, anyway) has forgotten that even as recently as 100 years ago, animal power still had a very large role being played in the non-urban and rural economies.
ReplyDeleteThose dog pics are great. Thanks---ken
ReplyDeleteAny clue on why they have the "T" handles hanging down from their collars?
DeleteIt's called a "dangle stick". https://www.wildtransylvania.com/2020/04/livestock-guardian-dogs-dangle-sticks.html
ReplyDeleteThank-you.
DeleteLots of horse and wagons doing farm work when I was in Romania in 2010, none of which were gypsies. I saw 40+ men and boys hand digging a water line into a village. Some of the prettiest country I ever saw in my travels.
ReplyDeleteAway from first-world western countries, that's the reality in the majority of the world even now.
ReplyDeleteI've seen exactly the same (away from the Potemkin cities and tourist spots) everywhere from Albania, Belarus, China ... to Russia (and just even think about 'all' of Africa).
Most westerners simply assume everywhere is mostly like home (or possibly the vacation brochure they peruse) but dirt tracks, and horse-drawn agriculture (if they're lucky and 'rich') is how most people live.
But then, people are weird (except for you and me, and I'm not so sure about you) and we all seem to jump to conclusions, make assumptions, and categorise large swathes based on tiny minorities.
Point? We all 'know' Romania is like this but ... compared to other countries in the area, it's actually got a better infrastructure and resources than most (and it has some of the best driving roads in the world ... OK courtesy of the despotic Ceaușescu's but ....).