372 



THE CRUST OR WALL OF THE HOOF. 



and mould from reaching the skin, and it preserves an equal temperature in the 

 parts. If the hair is suffered to remain on the heels of the farm-horses, there is 

 greater necessity for brushing and hand-rubbing the heels, and never washing them. 

 Fashion and utility have removed the hair from the heels of our hackney 

 and carriage horses. When the horse is carefully tended after his work is over, 

 and his legs quickly and completely dried, the less hair he has about them the 

 better, for then both the skin and the hair can be made perfectly dry before 

 evaporation begins, or proceeds so far as to deprive the legs of their heat. 

 Grease is the child of negligence and mismanagement. It is driven from our 

 cavalry, and it will be the fault of the gentleman and the farmer if it is not 

 speedily banished from every stable. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

 THE FOOT. 



A The external crust seen ut 

 the quarter, 



B The coronary ring. 



c The little horny plates 

 lining the crust. 



D The same continued over 

 the bars. 



E E The two concave surfaces 

 of the inside of the horny frog. 



F That which externally is 

 the cleft of the frog. 



G The bars. 



H The rounded part of the 

 heels, belonging to the frog. 



This smaller cut exhibits, in as satisfactory a manner, the mechanism and 

 structure of the base of the foot. 



a a The frog. 

 b The sole. 

 c c The bars. 

 dd The crust. 



The foot is composed of the horny box that covers the extremities of the horse, 

 and the contents of that box. The hoof or box is composed of the crust or wall, 

 the coronary ring and band, the bars, the horny laminae, the sole, and the horny frog. 



THE CRUST OR WALL OF THE HOOF. 



The crust or wa//, is that portion which is seen when the foot is placed on 

 the ground, and reaches from the termination of the hair to the ground. It is 

 deepest in front, where it is called the toe, measuring there about three inches 



