440 COST OF SHOEING. 



dollar. For this work it is customary to charge from two 

 dollars and a half to four dollars. Part of this charge is 

 made to defray rent, taxes, etc., and periods of enforced idle- 

 ness, and part, a considerable part, is used by many farriers 

 to obtain and retain the patronage of the head servant. Re- 

 garding the matter of commission, the writer has taken the 

 liberty to quote an article which appeared in The Turf, 

 Field and Farm in the issue of the 25th of June, 1897: 



" Not as many people are using carriage horses as when the times were 

 good, and the coachman who wants to keep his employer in a cheerful 

 frame of mind will not add to the expense account by devious ways. A 

 veterinary surgeon, who has been behind the scenes, writes a letter to the 

 London Field from which we extract : 



" ' The gentleman's servant has but a single lesson to receive in what 

 he calls " discount," and ever afterward bleeds all with whom he comes in 

 contact or else withdraws his patronage. Please mark the fact that it is 

 his and not his master's patronage ; the latter only writes the checks, all 

 else is in the hands of the coachman or stud groom. Few readers of the 

 Field wti\ attribute any share of the late farriers' strike to the coachmen, 

 but I could easily prove to your entire satisfaction, Mr. Editor, that a sum 

 of is. on each set of shoes is the minimum which any West End coachman 

 would accept, in addition to ten per cent on the account when paid. The 

 more respectable farriers and veterinary surgeons decline to go further than 

 this ; but the majority of men who carry on shoeing forges are compelled 

 to book shoes that are never supplied, and divide the plunder with the 

 coachman. Many horses keep on their shoes too long, and thereby induce 

 corns, while the owner is charged with a new set every three weeks and re- 

 moves once a fortnight. 



" * There are master farriers who will give one or two sovereigns for a 

 coachman's promise to have his horses shod at the said farrier's forge next 

 season. Some of the largest businesses have been built up on this system, 

 and the account is " arranged " between the coachman and the foreman, or 

 master of the forge. 



" ' The farriers work hard and earn really good wages, but knowing how 



