96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



night. When I go out in the morning and take up his feet, 

 they are very hot, and full of fever. How many men ever 

 do a thing to cure that horse's feet ? They are already in a 

 state of inflammation. He has not been sent to the black- 

 smith. Who does any thing to cure that? There is not 

 one in this audience, I will venture to say, who has done 

 a single thing for his horse's feet when in that condition. If 

 anybody has, let him say so. I know the history of this 

 thing: I have inquired into it. The result of the fever 

 and inflammation is, that the feet begin to contract, and the 

 horse cannot bear his weight upon them. Did shoeing do 

 it? Not a bit. Lack of care, and oversight, and attention, 

 on the part of the proprietor of the horse, did it. Do not 

 lay it to the blacksmith : he is not to blame, and he cannot 

 cure it. You need not run from one blacksmith to another 

 to cure it. Nothing can cure it. The horse is good for 

 nothing: he is lost forever. The loss I have suffered in 

 horses has been owing to my own carelessness or neglect, 

 chiefly ; though I have unfortunately bought a few that had 

 defects of which I was not aware at the time, and I got 

 cheated. 



We may say that shoeing hurts horses. But every man 

 is mighty wise who owns a horse ; and one man goes to the 

 blacksmith, and says, " Put on shoes with heels as thin as a 

 cent, and toes half an inch thick." Well, the man is paid 

 for doing the work; and he does it. Then another man 

 comes to him, and says, " Put shoes on my horse with high 

 heel-calkins, and no toe-calkins," and he does it. You 

 can understand that such kind of shoeing may possibly, in 

 some instances, suit, but not usually; and I think that 

 manner of calking has done mischief. It has been owing 

 to the proprietor attempting to teach the mechanic how to 

 shoe. That is the way the trouble has been caused; and 

 the mechanic is not to blame. 



In regard to the communication of qualities by the sire 

 and dam to the progeny, I think there is an infallible rule 

 about it. You do not need to theorize on it. I think I can 

 put it in very few words. This rule extends throughout 

 the animal kingdom : you see it in the human species, and 

 there is where I got ray information. You let two persons 

 have issue : they may have ten children, and, if one of those 



