J3t> BOARD OF AGRICULTORE. 



for a contribution to jour annual report, on the subject ; and your 

 letter of 9tli instant puts me in mind, that if I am to furnish any- 

 thing of this sort, it should be set about now. B it as my present 

 leisure will not permit me to "write you an original communication, 

 such as I ^yould wish, and as, besides, I am ignorant of what faults 

 are most prevalent in the practice of the art in your quarter, the 

 best I can do is to send you, in substance, the views I urged on the 

 community here some years ago, through the medium of a letter 

 addressed to the Directors of the St. John County Agricultural 

 Society. How far what I then wrote may be applicable to the 

 state of the art now, and with you, I am of course unable to say; 

 but if, on perusal, you deem my suggestions deserving of a place in 

 your publication, they are very much at your service. 



In the course of the correspondence which led to my coming to 

 this Province, the Secretary of the St. John County Agricultural 

 Sccietv wrote : 



" It is greatly desired by members of the society that the Surgeon 

 should have in connection with his establishment, or under his charge, 

 a forge where harses could be shod in a proper manner. At present, 

 ■we are very badly off in this respect, there being but few smiths 

 with whom a good horse can be safely trusted." 



This was written in the summer of 1851, and my own observation 

 after coming here in 1852, fully bore out the ti'uth of the statement. 

 It was not necessary to take off shoes, or examine feet, or enter into 

 any other minute kind of inspection, to find out the evil. The long 

 donkey-like hoofs every where seen, and the number of horses lame 

 from corns, contractions, ringbones, spavins, sprained tendons and 

 interfering, were sufficient evidence that the society had not instructed 

 its Secretary to write as he did without abundant cause. 



Such being the case, there was need for little further proof that 

 the horses here were not generally shod as they should be, nor was 

 it required that I should argue the benefits of abetter system. Tiie 

 adage " no foot no horse," is equally applicable here as where it was 

 first used. In this country, Avhcre horses are hard driven, and toa 

 light generally for their Avork, it is of the greatest importance that 

 as few defects should exist in the plan of shoeing them, and as many 

 advantages be combined, as the state of the shoeing art will admit 

 ©f, and it was to further this desirable end that the following remarks 



