No, 12. 



Shoeing the Horse. — Anecdotes of the Dog. 



373 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Shoeing the Horse. 



Mr. Editor, — The remark of your corres- 

 pondent at page 318 of your Number for 

 May, " That many of us transpose the order 

 of our labours," reminds me of a mode adopted 

 in the shoeing of the horse, which I once 

 witnessed, and which is I believe of import- 

 ance sufficient to deserve notice in the pages 

 of your valuable and very interesting work. 

 It occurred at the town of Croydon, near 

 London, which is known as the centre of the 

 stag-hunt, so well attended by the whole 

 country around, and especially by the high- 

 bred bloods of London : and where may be 

 seen a field of the best horses in the whole 

 world — many of them worth their five or 

 seven thousand dollars. 



As I once passed through this town, one 

 of my horses' shoes became loose, and I went 

 to the shop of a smith named Lovelace, to 

 get it fastened ; the shoe was nearly new, 

 and had become loose in consequence of the 

 nails having drawn out of the hoof, although 

 they had been clinched in the manner univer- 

 sally practised. The smith remarked that all 

 the other shoes were loose, and would soon 

 drop off, when I requested him to take them 

 off and replace them; and then did 1 perceive 

 the diff.'rent mode which he adopted for fixing 

 them, which I will here detail. As fast as 

 he drove the nails, he merely bent the points 

 down to the hoof, without, as is customary, 

 twistino- them off with the pincers ; these he 

 then drove home, clinching them against a 

 heavy pair of pincers, which were not made 

 very sharp; and after this had been very 

 carefully done, he twisted off each nail as 

 close as possible to the hoof; the pincers 

 being dull, the nail would hold, so as to get 

 a perfect twist romid before it separated. 

 These twists were then beaten close into the 

 hoof and filed smooth, but not deep, or with 

 the view to rasp off the twist of the nail. 

 "Oh ho!" said I, "I have learnt a lesson in 

 horse-shoeing." " Yes," said he, " and a 

 valuable one ; if I were ever to lose a single 

 shoe in a long day's hunt, 1 shoald have to 

 shut up my shop ; my business is to shoe the 

 horses belonging to the hunt, and the loss of 

 a shoe would be the probable ruin of a horse 

 worth, perhaps, a thousand pounds; but I 

 never am fearful of such an accident." — 

 "Simply, because you drive home and clinch 

 the nails before you twist them off," said I — 

 "Yes," replied he, "by which I secure a 

 rivet, as well as a clinch." The thing was 

 as clear as the light of day, and I have seve- 

 ral times endeavoured to make our shoeing- 

 smiths understand it, but they cannot see the 

 advantage it would be to themselves, and 

 guess, therefore, it would never do in these 



parts ; but if my brother farmers cannot see 

 how it works with half an eye, and have not 

 the resolution to get it put into practice, they 

 ought to see the shoes drop from the feet of 

 their horses daily, as I was once accustomed 

 to do. Now, let any one take up an old 

 horse-shoe at any of the smiths' shops on the 

 road, and examine the clinch of llie nails 

 which have drawn out of the hoof, and be 

 will soon perceive how the thing operates. 

 In short, if the nails are driven home before 

 twisting off, and \.\\e rivet formed by the twist 

 be not afterwards removed by the rasp, I 

 shoald be glad to be told how the shoe is to 

 come off at all, unless by first cutting out the 

 twist. I am, sir, a constant reader of the 

 Cabinet, and one who has benefited many 

 dollars by the various hints which have been 

 given in its pages. J. S. 



Amongst which, perhaps, no one has appeared of 

 more value to our practical readers than that here pre- 

 sented. Will our correspondent accept thanks for his 

 very interesting "hint," which is given in the true 

 spirit of reciprocity. Ed. 



Anecdotes of the Dog. 



FROM Jessie's gleanings. 



"I delight in hearing well-authenticated 

 anecdotes of the sagacity and attachment of 

 Dogs : their fidelity to man is so conspicuous, 

 and they are so capable of showing great 

 and extraordinary instances of noble and dis- 

 interested affection, added to an instinct which 

 is nearly allied to reason, that I shall devote 

 a short space in relating some well-attested 

 facts concerning them. 



One of these was recently related to me 

 by the late Captain Gooch ; he informed me 

 that Captain Dance brought with him from 

 China a native dog ; after his ship was at her 

 moorings in the Thames at London, he took 

 a chaise, put the dog in it, and drove to his 

 house in Surrey, when Bonner, the name of 

 the dog, was made over to the Captain's sis- 

 ters. The next night, as the ship was getting 

 under weigh for the docks, one of the sailors 

 heard a loud barking ainongst the rushes on 

 the Kent side of the river, and immediately 

 exclaimed it was Bonner's bark: that, how- 

 ever, was thought impossible, as the Captain 

 had taken him away the day before : a boat 

 was at length lowered, and on arriving at the 

 ^ide of the river, Bonner was discovered and 

 brought on board. Here was an instance of 

 a dog being brought to a strange c-ountry, and 

 taken in a carriage a distance of some 25 

 miles from the ship he had lefl, finding his 

 way back to it, through a country essentially 

 different from his own — a different soil and 

 climate, different objects and different people; 

 but by what instinct he was enabled to da 

 this, is not easy to define. 



