138 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Figure 1, is a good exemplifieation of this. It is a sole view 

 of a foot elongated and contracted bj a long continued course of bad 

 shoeing. Tlie frog has almost disappeared between the contracted 

 heels, the bars have been cut away, the sole and crust scooped out 

 •with the buttris to a thin ed^je, and the toe left untouched. The 

 foot from which the sketch is taken, is in the exact condition in 

 which it last left the blacksmith's shop, with the exception of the 

 shoe being off; and is a good illustration of the common mode of 

 buttris paring. It is also a good illustration of the long uncouth 

 form of feet, to which I have adverted, as attracting my notice on 

 first passing up the market slip of St. John, and of which a sample 

 is now rarely to be seen on our streets. The plate is an exact repre- 

 sentation of the foot in all its proportions. The foot itself had 

 originally been a very good one ; the quality of the horn being still 

 unimpaired. 



"When the foot is unshod and the horse at liberty, the growth of 

 the hoof is barely sufficient to provide for the constant Avear and 

 tear of the sole and toe, and consequently no part is either wanting 

 or superabundant. But when the horse is put to work on hard 

 roads, and to stand in dry stables, the foot becomes inadequate to 

 the wear, and to save it we put an iron shoe on. This shoe prevents 

 the wear, without checking the growth of the hoof; and to compen- 

 sate for this, every time the shoe is off, the foot should be brought 

 as near as possible to the form and size that nature gave it. In the 

 unshod colt, the greatest diameter of the hoof is across the sole. 

 This is especially the case in the fore foot, and it contributes mate- 

 rially to the usefulness of the animal that it should continue so 

 through life. 



The function of the fore leg is mainly that of supporting the 

 weight of the body, head and neck, and of transferring that weight 

 forward from point to point, the time the animal is in motion. In 

 performing this latter action, its mechanical bearing is much the 

 same as that of a spoke in a carriage wheel. It is in fact a lever, 

 in which, to give increased speed, the power acts at a disadvantage; 

 the fulcrum or fixed point being at the long end of the lever, while 

 the power and weight act near each other at the short. Tliis long 

 portion or arm of the lever is the leg from the elbow to the ground, 

 the toe being the fixed point over which the body is raised, and 



