SECRETARY'S REPORT. 151 



cut, get a liberal slicing ; a scoop is then taken out of the sole on 

 each side, extending nearly to the toe, and forming a uniform concave 

 from the point of the frog to the out edge of the crust, so that when 

 a scooped shoe is placed on it, instead of the foot and shoe presenting 

 two level surfaces to each other, they rest upon two thin edges ; and 

 even with the level shoe, it is the thin out edge only of the crust that 

 bears the weight. This scooping out of the sides of the sole, is all 

 the implement can conveniently efiect. It is not handy for rounding 

 or shortening back the toe, and so is seldom applied in this way, that 

 part being left entire, except a little out of the sole surface, which 

 rather adds than otherwise to its projecting point. Neither is it 

 available for cleaning out the sole from the angles between the heels 

 and bars, leaving these parts prominent to rest upon the shoe. All 

 it can do here is to bring the whole to a uniform level, and this 

 being done with the foot off the ground, the instant it is set down 

 all the parts change their relative positions, and if the sole was left 

 equally full as the crust and bars (parts designed to bear the horse's 

 weight,) it is now more so, and a week or two's work and growth 

 brings such a degree of pressure on it as to bruise the sensitive sole 

 underneath, rupturing some of the minute blood vessels with which 

 it is studded, and showing the evil that is done by the effusion of the 

 blood through the pores of the horny sole as in the condition called 

 corn. 



The foot being prepared in this way, the shoe was fitted (so far 

 as it got any fitting) to its elongated and pointed form, and being 

 turned wrong side up so far as the shape of the toe went, it was 

 nailed as far back towards the heels as nails could safely be driven, 

 and the same process being repeated time after time when the shoes 

 were removed, we had the long, contracted, mule looking feet pro- 

 duced, that were seen daily on our streets. 



A system of shoeing free from these defects is just as easy to 

 practice, equally cheap, and productive of far more satisfactory 

 results. The following is an outline of its most important points. 



In making the shoes whether fore or hind, the elongated and 

 pointed shape should be studiously avoided. Even when from pre- 

 vious bad management the feet are contracted at the heels and 

 flattened in on the sides to an extent admitting of only a partial 

 restoration to the proper shape ; still the projecting point upon the 



