FIRE HORSES. 249 



roads being less hard and alarms less frequent, they 

 go on very well for some years longer. Great pains 

 are taken with the shoeing, which is under the direct 

 charge of the accomplished Vet employed by the 

 department. Horses used in the city proper wear 

 corks on all their feet, to give them a better grip on 

 slippery pavements, car-tracks, etc. ; but in the suburbs 

 corks are dispensed with, the shoes without them 

 having this advantage, — that they let the foot down 

 lower, so that it supports the weight of the horse in a 

 more natural position. The frog of the foot is in- 

 tended by nature to lessen the concussion by receiving 

 part of the blow itself ; but with an ordinary shoe, 

 especially with one having corks, this function of the 

 frog is very imperfectly discharged, the frog being 

 kept off the ground by the shoe. What the city fire 

 horses (perhaps I might say, what horses in general) 

 need is some method of shoeing which will protect 

 the wall of the foot, and at the same time allow the 

 frog to come in contact with the ground. 1 



Fire horses also throw their shoes very frequently^ 

 catching them in car-tracks and other projections. In 

 fact, a team can hardly go to a fire without losing at 

 least one shoe among them ; and the continual re- 

 shoeing tends, of course, to wear away the hoof. It 

 is desirable, therefore, to make it grow as fast as pos- 

 sible, and for this purpose it is kept well oiled. Ev- 



1 Possibly this result might be accomplished satisfactorily by 

 the Charlier process, which consists in channelling the wall of the 

 foot at its base, and inserting in the circular groove so formed a 

 steel shoe. By this method the walls of the foot are protected as 

 with the ordinary shoe, but, the foot not being raised from the 

 ground, the frog comes into play, just as if no shoe at all were 

 worn. 



