788 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



plane, not beveled, for we have seen that the sole was destined, particularly at its junction 

 with the wall in front, to sustain weight. We also know that it is advantageous to the whole 

 foot and limb to allow the sole as wide and general a bearing as possible, so that one part 

 may relieve the other; the sole coming to the aid of the wall, and the frog interposing to 

 share the fatigue imposed upon both, as well as to relieve the strain on the hinder parts of 

 the foot, flexor-tendons, and limb, and keep a firm grasp of the ground by its elastic and 

 adhesive properties. 



The shoe applied to the foot, then, should have its hoof -surface flat, in order that it may 

 sustain the wall and as much of this strong portion of the sole as its width permits. This is 

 contrary to the usual practice, which only allows the wall to rest on a narrow surface, and 

 bevels off the remainder of the shoe to prevent contact with the sole. Many years experi 

 ence of this plain foot-surfaced shoe in various regions of the globe, and on feet of every 

 kind and quality, has proved the soundness of this view. The foot is brought as near to a 

 state of nature, when the greater part of its plantar surface supports the weight of the body, 

 as man can hope to achieve while submitting the horse to an artificial existence. 



A light, thin shoe is always preferable to a heavy, thick one; as the narrowness of the 

 metal insures a good foothold, in this respect imitating the wall, while its thinness brings 

 the sole, frog, and bars in closer approximation to the ground.&quot; 



Miles recommends that the frog, except in very rare instances, should never be cut or 

 pared. He says: The first stroke of the knife removes this thin, horny covering altogether, 

 and lays bare an under surface, totally unfitted, from its moist, soft texture, for exposure, either 

 to the hard ground or the action of the air; and in -consequence of such unnatural exposure it 

 soon becomes dry and shrinks: then follow cracks, the edges of which turning outwards 

 form rags; these rags are removed by the smith at the next shoeing, whereby another such 

 surface is exposed, and another foundation laid for other rags; and so on, until at last the 

 protruding, plump, elastic cushion, interposed by nature between the navicular joint and the 

 ground, and so essential to its preservation from injury, is converted by the mischievous 

 interference of art into the dry, shrunk, unyielding apology for a frog, to be seen in the foot 

 of almost every horse that has been regularly shod for a few years. The frog is provided 

 within itself with two very efficient modes of throwing off any superfluous horn it may be 

 troubled with; and it is very unwise in man to interfere with them: the first and most com 

 mon is the separation from its surface of small bran-like scales, which, becoming dry, fall off 

 in a kind of whitish scurf, not unlike the dust that adheres to Turkey figs. The other, 

 which is upon a larger scale, and of rarer occurrence, is sometimes called &quot; casting the frog.&quot; 

 A thick layer of frog separates itself in a body, and shells off as deep as a usual paring with 

 a knife; but it is worthy of remark that there is this very important difference between the 

 two operations: nature never removes the horny covering until she has provided another 

 horny covering beneath, so that, although a large portion of the frog may have been removed, 

 there still remains a perfect frog behind, smaller, it is true, but covered with horn, and in 

 every way fitted to sustain exposure; while the knife, on the contrary, removes the horny 

 covering, but is unable to substitute any other in its stead. My advice, therefore, is to leave 

 the frog to itself; nature will remove the superfluous horn, and the rags can do no harm, and 

 if unmolested will soon disappear altogether.&quot; 



Lafosse s System of Shoeing. Lafosse, the noted French veterinarian and author, 

 recommends the following method of shoeing: 



&quot; To prevent horses slipping on the dry, glistening pavement pav sec et plombe it is 

 necessary to shoe them with a crescent-shaped shoe, that is, a shoe which only occupies the 

 circumference of the toe, and whose heels gradually thin away to the middle of the quarters, 

 so that the frog and heels of the hoof bear on the ground, and the weight be sustained 

 behind and before, but particularly in the latter, because the weight of the body falls heaviest 



