108 



HORSE AND MAN. 



with the name of the owner. The hoof in ques- 

 tion is that of the left fore-foot, and that of the 

 right fore foot had been quite as badly treated by 

 the farrier's knife. 



By way of contrast, I give a figure of a hoof as 

 it ought to be. This is taken from another photo- 

 graph sent to me by Mr. Astley. The hoof had 

 originally been as badly maltreated as the former 

 specimen, but when released from 

 the knife, the rasp, the nail, and 

 the shoe, it returned in a few 

 months to its original shape. 



I especially wish the reader 

 to remark that throughout this 

 work I place actual facts before 

 him, and do not air my own 

 theories, fancifully illustrated by 

 an obliging artist. 

 There is a peculiar danger about shoe-nails which 

 is little suspected. ' Cut ' nails, as everyone knows, 

 are far cheaper than forged nails, and for many pur- 

 poses, especially in carpentering, are quite as useful. 

 But, for horseshoeing, they are terribly dangerous. 

 Cut nails are made by rolling sheets of iron to the 

 requisite thickness, and then punching the nails out 

 of the sheets, much as steel pens are made, and as 

 military gun-caps were made before the breech loading 



HOOP, NEARLY PERFECT 

 ME. LUCK'S HORSE. 



