Prevention of Abortion, &c., in Mares, Cows, and Ewes 



3S1 



and human ordure from neighbouring closets, 

 as we have seen in some instances, gain 

 access to it. Such may appear very trivial 

 things to name as causes, and we may be 

 told that cows and other animals breed, and 

 have bred successfully, although using such 

 water, in defiance of the statement; more- 

 over, it may also be said they prefer it before 

 purer water. The selection can easily be ac- 



counted for. Such water is considerably 

 softened by the alkaline salts, which find 

 their way into it, and the supernatant portion 

 when removed may appear tolerably clear ; 

 yet it does not alter the nature of the fact 

 that it contains certain elements which are 

 productive of evil consequences. — G. Arma- 

 tage in Highland and Agricultural Society's 

 Transactions. 



HORSES' FEET. 



ONE of the most common errors of the 

 present day, and to which much im- 

 portance is attached by all who have to co 

 with horses, is the belief that the major part 

 of those whose feet are so called " bad " have 

 inherited the failing at their birth. We there- 

 lore hear the smith complaining of this 

 animal having "shocking feet;" others are 

 said to be " pretty fair," or " tolerably good," 

 and very few are really " first-rate." Some 

 are " too hard," and therefore he cannot 

 exercise his ingenious designs in carving and 

 scraping them as he would like, and another 

 kind are so " thin and shelly" that they will 

 not hold a shoe, and by the pressure of the 

 nails lameness results, or pieces are split off 

 time after time, until the animal is quite use- 

 less. 



If any person will take the trouble to 

 make notes and close observation, he 

 will find that all the different kinds of 

 feet which are recognized in the category 

 of the shoeing smith of the present day, 

 who is impressed with the prevailing madness 

 for hoof mutilation, invariably come in for 

 the same kind of treatment. If nicety of 

 description, and powers of discrimination 

 are his in the way of deciding on the different 

 kinds, they have so far failed in making 

 apparent to his obtuse intellect, that treat- 

 ment should be consonant with Nature's 

 requirements. And this is not all. We 

 have found times innumerable that, let the 

 horse's foot be ever so good in his own esti- 



mation when it first comes beneath his cart- 

 scarcely twelve months go by before we 

 are told that our steed has some defect of 

 the feet — it has become " thin and brittle,"' 

 " hard and crapply," " weak and shelly," and 

 some have gone so far as to say " he has 

 naturally a bad foot " — actually asseverating 

 that he was foaled with the defect. Had we 

 not witnessed the gradual destruction occa- 

 sioned by reduction of the hoof by knife and 

 rasp, and had known nothing of the disas- 

 trous effects of alternate heat and cold, and 

 drought and moisture upon such an important 

 structure, thus deprived of its own means of 

 preservation, we might have believed such state- 

 ments. Knowing differently, we condemned 

 the men for their ignorance and mendacity, 

 and for the future scrupulously avoided 

 them, except at the end of a year or so 

 more when we call to exhibit to them the 

 same horse with sound strong and perfect 

 hoofs, the result of different treatment alto- 

 gether. 



Without entering into minute details of ana- 

 tomical structure and design, we would desire to 

 carry the reader with us in a brief description 

 of the component parts of the hoof, and the 

 functions they fulfil, by which it may be as- 

 certained how much the foot can take care of 

 itself, if man's stupidity and ignorance i.s 

 allowed no part in its treatment. 



The outer case — called the crust or wall — 

 grows downwards from the top or coronet, 

 where it is formed,, and is composed of a 



