THE horse's foot, AND HOW TO SHOE IT. 235 



after the foot has actually come in contact with the 

 ground. 



It is also by means of this inner or sensitive sole that 

 the secretions which feed the outer sole are deposited. 

 On the other hand, the outer sole has for its use the 

 work of protecting the inner sole both from contact 

 with the ground and also with the atmosphere. This 

 atmospheric contact results in absorbing the natural 

 moisture until it becomes desiccated, or parched, so that 

 great cracks and rents appear in it, as the farmer in 

 August, on a clay bottom, finds great rents and cracks 

 in the soil. In short, the outer sole is Nature's shield and 

 Nature's stuffing for the inner sole, to ward off, on the 

 one hand, the blows that might otherwise smite it ; and, 

 on the other hand, to keep its juices, by the means of 

 which the sole of the foot is being supplied with 

 needed nutrition, from being dried up. At this point 

 we may properly inquire. If this is the use and office 

 of the outer sole, if it holds such an important rank in 

 the order of natural provision for the sound condition 

 and healthy growth of the foot, why is it ever pared 

 away ? This is my answer : The reason is, because 

 people are ignorant, and blindly follow a stupid and 

 barbarous custom, instead of pausing to reflect upon 

 what they are doing. Ask any smith why he pares 

 out the sole of a foot, and he can give you no 

 reason save that he has been taught to do so. And 

 who, pray, taught him ? Some one as ignorant as 

 he, I reply. And so, generation after generation, a 



