FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 83 



of tlie foot and the surface of the shoe he effected. Such 

 a proceedmg is well described as " fitting the foot to the 

 shoe," and is not only destructive to the horn but 

 ■damaging to the foot, hy permitting an uneven shoe to 

 look as though it were properly fitting. When hot-fitting 

 is used and not abused — when it is adopted merely to 

 indicate how and where the shoe fits, and not to make it 

 appear to fit — I consider it has many advantages over 

 cold-fitting. With some feet and some shoes it is quite 

 possible to produce a good fit without heating the shoe. 

 When a shoe requires much alteration to bring it into 

 exact correspondence with the foot, even the most expert 

 farrier cannot do justice to his work with cold iron; he 

 gets as near to a fit as he can, and when the hoof is 

 strong, little harm is done. The best work is that which 

 includes the greatest exactness of fit, and uneven pres- 

 ,sure or loose shoes result from inferior work. A badly 

 fitted shoe requires more nails to retain it in place, and 

 experience has shown that hot-fitted shoes give a smaller 

 average of loose or lost shoes than those cold-fitted. The 

 slight charring of the end of the horn fibres, which 

 results from proper hot-fitting, has never been found to 

 do injury, and it api)arently has some advantages. One 

 is that the surface of the hoof less readily absorbs mois- 

 ture than when not charred. Another is that the horn 

 is softened for a time and expanded, allowing nails to be 

 easily driven, and then contracting and retaining them 

 more firmly. The objection to hot-fitting applies only to 

 its abuse. The advantages are greater exactness of fit, 

 greater security that the shoe will be firmly retained on 

 the foot, and greater facility in the operation of shoeing. 

 Perhaps I ought to add that when cold-fitting is inevit- 

 able, machine-made shoes are the best, because they are 

 more regular in form and more often level on the foot- 

 surface than hand-made shoes. Army studs on active 

 service, and studs used in coal mines comprise, perhaps, 

 the only animals upon which cold-fitting is unavoidable^ 



Tips are short shoes protecting only the foremost 

 half of the foot. Upon grass or soft roads, tips are quite 



