256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



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it be a little from the outside heel. The frog should only be touched 

 to remove any cut or I'agged portions. The bars, those angular 

 rido-es that lie between the fro2 and heels, should be left at their 

 full strength, and the sole between them and the wall of the heel 

 thinned down, so far at least, as to prevent the possibility of its 

 descending on the shoe. The sole at the toe where it has the pro- 

 tection of the shoe, should have all the dead and ragged horn 

 removed, and the crust should be shortened back in front, and a 

 notch taken out for the reception of the upturned tip, and its whole 

 lower surface where it rests upon the shoe made plain and level. 



The last is a most important point. The weight of the horse is 

 supported by the attachment of the coffin bone to the inside wall of 

 the hoof, the lamina by which the connection is formed, permitting 

 of a very perceptible amount of motion of the parts. It is consistent 

 with this that the rest of the hoof upon the shoe should be greatest 

 at the inner edge of the crust rather than the out side, so as to give 

 the weight the most direct support. In the scooped out form of shoe 

 and foot, (see figures 1 and 7,) where the bearing of the one upon 

 the other is by the extreme out edges, this is widely departed from, 

 and the effects are seen in the broken, twisted, and contracted edges 

 and heels produced. When the fore shoes are made without a seat, 

 as in case of having the side next the ground concaved, (figure 14,) 

 the same holds good with respect to the flattening and leveling of 

 the crust, but the sole requires to be more cleaned out so as to prevent 

 its descent upon the shoe. For doing this, as well as shortening 

 back and forming the toe, the drawing knife will be found a far fitter 

 tool than the buttris. In applying the latter to the foot, the heels, 

 frogs and bars, are what first present themselves, and stand most in 

 the way of its cutting edge ; with the knife, the toe and sole are the 

 parts easiest to cut, the back of the foot being out of the way rather ; 

 and it is owing to this perhaps more than anything else, that in the 

 hands of those who shoe by rote only, without rule or reason for 

 what they do, the one tool may be taken as the emblem of a good 

 plan of shoeing, and the other the reverse. It is quite possible to 

 make a bad shaped foot with a drawing knife, and not impossible to 

 make a good shaped one with a buttris, but it is more convenient 

 with each tool to do the reverse. 



•Few generjil directions can be given about the driving of the nails. 



