THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER. 



243 



end where the two pieces of wood connected, was a semi- 

 circular blacled knife, and on the lower portion a bed in which 

 the knife rested when the machine closed up. The operator 

 got the hoi'se's tail between the handles of this machine as 

 shown in the accompanying' illustration, Fig. 152, and in a 

 jiff}' the knife closed down on the tail and a portion dropped 

 to the floor. As the knife penetrated the member the horse 

 winced for a moment, but after the member was severed 

 he did not seem to suffer. The next portion of the opera- 

 tion was the singeing or cauterizing of the end of the tail 

 that remained on the horse. A singeing iron, Fig. 147, 



Fig. 150— The Flag-Tail Horse, after Docking aud Pricking. 



white with heat, i^esembling in every respect a common car- 

 riage nut wrench, with a small hole in one end, was brought 

 into use. While the '' docker " moved this iron over the raw 

 part of the tail the horse again showed signsbf pain, but his 

 actions were not violent enough to disturb in the least the 

 man woiiving the hot iron, who very.complacently puffed the 

 cigar in his mouth and attended strictly to business without 

 saying a word. In less than two minutes from the time the 

 horse was hitched the entire process of docking was over, 

 all the fixtures about the horse to keep him quiet were re- 

 moved ^ and the dumb beast with the new-fangled and fash- 



