FARMEKS' INSTITUTES. 235 



50 head of cattle or horses, I believe it will pay to cut up the feed, and if pigs 

 are kept it will pay to boil or steam all the meal or graia of any kind fed to 

 both cattle and pigs when feeding to make milk or meat. They can be in- 

 duced to eat and digest more of the cooked grain than when fed raw. 



"While not an advocate of very high farming, I believe farmers must look to 

 the little things; they must study the closest economy in tlie details of the 

 business. Capitalists are putting money into agriculture ; they are introducing 

 the careful, systematic methods acquired only through close business competi- 

 tion. Merciuints and manufacturers, to succeed, mast take advantage of 

 everytliing possible. The same is soon to be true in farming. The careful, 

 shrewd man with business habits will succeed, and the shiftless farmer will 

 become a common laborer. 



THE HORSE'S FOOT. 



BY JOHN T. FRAZER, V. S., OF NEW YORK. 

 [Read at Rockforfl, Big Rapids and Manchester Institutes.] 



Before entering upon the study of the horse's foot I would like to make an 

 explanation. In corresponding with President Abbot in reference to a course 

 of lectures before the Farmers' Institutes I tried to make it fully understood 

 that my papers should treat of veterinary hygiene only, and I have restricted 

 myself to these grounds for the following reasons : in the first place the pro- 

 fession of the veterinarian is legitimate and has its rights, which ought to be 

 respected by the people of this country and defended by every qualified practi- 

 tioner of veterinary medicine and surgery in the country, and these rights can 

 be respected by the people- and defended by the veterinarians only by each party 

 carefully confining tliemselves to their respective fields. As lawyers, mer- 

 chants and mechanics may be taught the proper means of keeping themselves 

 in health, with great advantage to them and our country, so may the farmer 

 be taught how to keep his animals in good health to their advantage, to his 

 profit, and to the promotion of the public good ; but when those animals are 

 affected with disease and are treated by the farmer or by the neighboring horse 

 doctor, or cow leech, then- are the rights of the veterinarian violated ; and who- 

 ever facilitates the acquisition of inadequate knowledge of the veterinary science 

 and art by the farmer, or any other person, violates the rights of the veterinary 

 profession; and the veterinarian who delivers popular^ lectures or essays in 

 veterinary medicine or surgery prostitutes his profession and his talents; and 

 for these reasons I shall in this paper confine myself as closely as possible to 

 the hygiene of the horse's foot. 



Zoologically considered the horse's foot is the end of his finger, or toe; the 

 true foot in this instance being that portion of the hind leg which we find 

 between the point of the hock or gambrel joint and the jioint of the toe. The 

 hock corresponds to the human ankle or tarsus, and the long round bone below 

 the hock or knee in the horse (known as the cannon bone), and the two small 

 bones attached to its sides (the splint bones) correspond to as many metatarsal 



