68 HORSES AND ROADS. 



he seems to have overlooked the economical facts 

 that, although in this way his horse-shoeing cost 

 him more by the year than formerly, he had less to 

 pay to the veterinary surgeon, that he got more 

 work out of his horses, and that they lived longer, 

 or were likely to live longer (as he had only then 

 had two years' experience). If this be taken into 

 account, his forge was, however indirectly, a great 

 commercial success. If he had not found it to 

 answer, so shrewd a man would not have carried 

 it on, nor would he have ventured to speak on 

 the subject in so independent and authoritative a 

 manner on such a special occasion. 



We are sadly in want of a man or two more 

 in England like Messrs. Eussell, Bowditch, and 

 the Messrs. Smither, and as outspoken. They 

 need not risk the setting up of their own forge, 

 each man individually. They have only to co-operate, 

 and either arrange that one of them in every dis- 

 trict should start one, making an agreement with a 

 certain number of neighbours that they should have 

 all their shoeing done there, or else, by union, bring 

 pressure on the shoeing smiths. A young man, 

 just starting, or having just started, in business 

 would be, perhaps, the best to choose, as he could not 

 point to the universal satisfaction he had hitherto 

 given (although horse owners are quite easily satisfied 

 as long as the shoes will only stick on until they are 

 worn out) ; and, after a couple of shoeings on the 

 same horses, he might discover for himself that a 

 new era was open to him by lending himself to the 



