In the Stable, Field, and on the Road. 131 



Russia, and in Asia Minor, yet the author does not 

 believe in unshod horses for general use in England ; not 

 that our roads are worse, but we drive them much faster, 

 consequently the horse has not a chance of picking his 

 way, and therefore requires some protection to the crust 

 of the foot. The tip being by far the best and safest of 

 all the shoes that are made, Mr. Douglas found by care- 

 ful experiment that light shoes will wear longer than 

 heavy shoes. The contract farrier, by putting on heavy 

 shoes, is wrong again, and, as I have said before, he 

 begins his economy from the wrong end. I think 1 

 have said enough about the faults of shoeing, yet when 

 I view the horse's foot with its beautiful structure and 

 combinations, and see how it is cut, rasped, pegged 

 to pieces with many and large nails, the heels cut open, 

 sole and frog cut away, and last, but not least, heavy 

 cumbersome lumps of iron put on for shoes, I cannot 

 but come to the conclusion that although horses have 

 been shod in England since the days of William the 

 Conqueror, yet upon the whole our shoeing-smiths as a 

 rule have not advanced in the art of shoeing, and many 

 of our horses are shod now with as bad shoes as in the 

 days of the Conqueror. 



RANUNCULACsE, OR BUTTERCUP POISONING. 



June is the month in which fair flora puts forth all 

 her charms, and although she clothes our fields and 

 hedgerows with beauty of colour of every shade and 

 form, yet her beauty may become fatal to man and 

 beast if they do not understand the nature of the plants 



