CHAPTER XXVI.

RECIPES.

Miscellaneous Recipes for the Workshop and Harness Room 317

INDEX OF PLATES.

Goldsmith Maid, Track Harness Frontispiece.

PAGE Double Road Harness 20 Coupé Harness 33 Phaeton Harness 53 Coach Harness 61 Breast Collar, Single Harness 113 Hame Collar, Single Harness 122 Team Harness 129 Heavy Draft Harness 137 Georgia Wagon Harness 161

PREFACE.

This book originated from a desire to furnish harness makers with a condensed practical guide suited to the workshop, office, salesroom, and stable. It treats of leather as furnished to the harness maker by the currier, its texture, strength, adaptability for specific uses; how to cut, fit, and finish; measuring for harness; complete tables for lengths and widths for cutting the various classes in use, whether for the carriage, farm, or road; bridles, halters, horse boots, mountings, bits, etc.

The illustrations represent standard styles and kinds of articles used by the trade, and guides for making up.

In the hints on repairing and caring for harness, a large amount of information is furnished the manufacturer and consumer, in a condensed form. The recipes for blacks, stains, varnishes, polishes, etc., have been tested and found reliable; the whole making a methodical manual indispensable to the progressive harness maker, and useful to every horse owner or other person interested in harness or saddlery. It is the only book of the kind published in the English language, and supplies a much-needed want. Every care has been taken to present the subjects treated on in the plainest manner, and to avoid errors. The author confidently believes that benefit will result from following the instructions given, and the standard of harness making be elevated. Should this anticipation be realized, the time spent in its preparation will be compensated for.

INTRODUCTION.

The manufacture of saddlery and harness, exclusive of all collateral branches, stands thirty-fourth in magnitude out of the two hundred and fifty-eight specified industries tabulated in the census report of 1870. At that time there were in the United States 7,607 saddlery and harness establishments, giving employment to 23,557 workmen; all but 841 were males above 16 years of age; employing a capital of $13,935,961; paying in wages $7,046,207; for materials, $16,068,310; and producing goods to the value of $32,709,981. Missouri stands first in the list in value of products, but fifth in the number of workmen employed, and second in the wages paid. New-York stands second in value of products, first in every other particular. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and New-Jersey are next in order.

By the total figures it will be seen that the average wages of the workmen is about $299 a year, being $78 below the average for the whole country in 1870, and $10 above the average of 1860.

There are but eleven branches of industry in which the number of establishments exceeds those of saddlery and harness, and in view of this fact, the average rate of wages is remarkably good. The harness maker is called upon to supply harness, saddlery, etc., for 7,145,370 horses, 1,125,415 mules and asses, a total of 8,270,785 animals; yet the total value of products of a year show but $4 a head for each animal—a figure disproportionately small, and one which explains, in part at least, why the trade is less prosperous than it should be. Were it a business which required the investment of a large capital, the case would be different; but as it is, the investment of a few hundred dollars enables a man to engage in a small business which returns him a moderate living, but one that might be lucrative if conducted in a proper manner. The harness maker supplies an article of absolute necessity, and there is no excuse for his placing his prices below fair business rates. If each man in the business would properly estimate the cost of every article, and add thereto a fair percentage of profit, there would be less complaints as to the unprofitableness of the harness trade. In preparing this manual the author has aimed to give information of a practical character to the trade, which will enable those engaged in it to conduct the workshop in a systematic manner. If this end is accomplished, it will be one important step toward making the business a profitable and pleasant one.

THE HARNESS MAKERS’ ILLUSTRATED MANUAL.