vi Preface. 



The Shoeing of the Horse is said to present a wide field for 

 improvement and invention^ which perhaps is true in one sense, but 

 certainly not in a financial 07ie. A number of patents during the last 

 eighty or ninety years have been secured for Horse Shoes — so many, 

 in fact, that a bare statement of the names and dates, together with 

 a brief enumeration of the wotiderftcl virtues zuhich they all claim to 

 possess would fill a volume of no 77iean size. We have carefully 

 examined the whole of the specifications relating to these patents^ 

 and their claims may be classified tinder three heads : 



(i) Some exhibit much ingenuity, but the cost attending their 

 production and use, places them far beyond what the 

 general public who own horses would expend in such 

 matters. 



(2) Others present much novelty, but will be found upon 



thorough examination, to possess no improvement 

 upon the modes at present daily in use. 



(3) Others, again, are so absurd and v/orthless, as scarcely to 



merit a second examination from any one. 



The Farrier s Art may be said to possess four Cardinal 

 Principles ; two of which relate to the construction of the shoe ; 



