350 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



sures, including stone and wood, do not last, on an average, over 

 25 years ; the cost, then, is $54,000,000 per annum, which, with 

 $81,000,000 of interest at 6 per cent on the first cost, amounts to 

 $135,000,000 annually expended in the republic for fences ! It is 

 absurd to suppose that so much fencing is necessary ; and we now 

 respectfully ask whether, in the outset of this article, we too strongly 

 reprobated the law and custom compelling the farmers of this 

 country to submit to so grinding and odious a lax upon their industry ? 



[From the same.] 



THE SWINNY, OR DISEASE OF THE SHOULDER. 



This is an affection not uncommon, but yet little understood If of 

 recent occurrence, it will be seen that the shoulder is swelled ; if of 

 long standing, that the shoulder is diminished in size, the muscles 

 having shrunk away. The shoulder is frequently shrunk when there 

 is no disease in it : this shrinking arises from disuse of the muscles. 

 To retain its full volume, a muscle must have constant action. Now, 

 disuse of the muscles of the shoulder may arise Irom two causes : 

 1st, lameness of the foot or leg ; 2d, lameness of the shoulder. If it 

 arise from the foot, no treatment is necessary for the shoulder. It 

 may be easily known if it proceeds from the foot, fn such case the 

 horse, when he moves, lifts his foot clear from the ground ; and 

 when he points his foot forward, he places it flat on the ground. If 

 the injury be in the shoulder, when he moves he drags the toe of 

 the foot along the ground, seemingly unable to lift it clear ; when 

 he points his foot out, his toe only rests on the ground, not the sole 

 of the foot. If the injury is in the shoulder, the horse reluctantly 

 turns his head towards the opposite shoulder : this strains the 

 muscles ; but he will willingly turn his licad toward the lame 

 shoulder, as this relaxes the muscles. 



The common causes of shrinking or swinny of the shoulder, when 

 it arises from the foot or injury to the leg below the shoulder, are 

 all the diseases of the fool and leg, which continue long enough to 

 occasion s.ich a disease of the muscles of the shoulder as to occasion 

 their shrinking. Such diseases are foot-founder, contraction of the 

 foot, strain of the navicular joint, ringbone, pumiced foot, sand- 

 crack, quitlor, gravel, any separation of the foot ; in short, any of 

 the various diseases of the foot which induce the horse to favor it, 

 and thus use as little as possible the whole leg and shoulder. 



The shrinking of the shoulder, where it arises from an injury in 

 the shoulder itself, has but one ordinary cause, namely, a strain of 

 the shoulder. When there is a strain of the shoulder, it is known at 

 once. Within a few hours after its occurrence, the shoulder is 

 swelled, perhaps in its whole length, but generally only at the lower 

 end. The strain lies almost always in the muscles which attach the 



