AET OP SHOEING. 573 



Taking our own practice alone, we could show ample lati- 

 tude in the weight of shoes, beginning with the race-horse 

 plate of three ounces, up to the cart-horse shoe of large 

 size, such as is used for London dray-horses, and the power- 

 ful Clydesdales of Edinburgh and Glasgow, in which cases 

 seventy-two ounces of iron is not an uncommon amount 

 composing a single shoe. 



Blood-horses require from nine to fifteen ounces of iron to 

 each shoe. And the general run of mixed-bred horses, in- 

 cluding all those used in the army service, will require every 

 grade of weight from eight or ten up to thirty- two ounces. 



Agricultural horses, throughout England and Scotland, 

 vary much in their stamp. The latter are generally the 

 stronger, and require the greatest weight of iron to shoe 

 them, though those used in the -midland counties of England 

 are probably about equal in weight. Shoes for these various 

 descriptions of English and Scotch farm horses of the 

 strongest breeds will average about 45 ounces each. Whilst 

 in Cleveland, and the eastern and southern counties of Eng- 

 land, where a coaching-bred or smaller class of cart-horse 

 is used, the shoes will average a fourth less than where such 

 pure-bred cart-horses are employed. 



What has been said on the weight of shoes has been more 

 to show the impossibility of giving any fixed rule on the 

 matter, than to attempt to establish one. 



In the process of making shoes, the iron should be drawn 

 level, no uneven thickness to be left at the toe or other part. 

 And if the suggestion already made about the kind of nails 

 be observed, no excess of thickness of the outer margin of 

 the shoe will be required ; neither will there be need for 

 hollowing out the shoe except to a slight extent ; and that, 

 not of necessity for leaving space between the sole of the 

 foot and the shoe, but more for the purpose of lightening 



