HORSE AND OX SHOEING. 295 



the classification of these details, and sufficient also in amount 

 to warrant the expenditure of public money for this purpose. 

 These experiments, while gradually unfolding a variety of 

 measures by which we might lessen the ravages of the potato 

 disease, would serve also to bring to light many valuable facts 

 concerning the general culture of this plant. 



This is no whimsical project of general experimental farming, 

 in which nobody knows precisely what ought to be done, or 

 what will be done. It is a definite scheme, confined exclusively 

 to a single crop, and having reference solely to the attainment 

 of a certain kind of information. The expenses of conducting 

 such a course of experiments could not be very great, because 

 they would be nearly balanced every year by the value of the 

 crop. A farm consisting of five or six acres of varied soil and 

 surface would be sufficient. A few hundred dollars per annum 

 would defray the expenses of superintendence, and the crops 

 would pay the cost of labor, both of men and animals. 



HORSE AND OX SHOEING. 



BY DAVID STILES, JR. 



The subject of horse and ox shoeing is intimately connected 

 with agriculture. Farm operations cannot be carried on 

 among us without shoeing. Yet this department is almost 

 entirely neglected ; no definite knowledge on the subject is laid 

 before the public in a way adapted to produce improvement. 

 From what I have read of the advance of shoeing horses in 

 England, I am compelled to believe that the art was better 

 understood there as a general thing, a century ago than it is at 

 present in this country. The English, for many centuries, 

 have been lovers of good horses. Their parks and hunting 

 grounds, their race courses and stage routes, their hackney 

 coaches and livery stables, have brought out many of the best 

 horses ; and as a people they have done more than any other 

 to diffuse a thorough knowledge of this useful animal. 



Shoeing is a necessary evil. No hoofs are made better by 

 shoeing. Nature never designed that animals should be shod. 

 In many parts of the world where horses are much used, the 



