128 SHOEING. 



coarse and careless manner, because of that excessive press of business 

 amid which it is executed. In the first place, the shoe is hurriedly torn 

 from the hoof, without the nails being properly unclinched, or any trouble 

 being taken about the process. Should the proprietor expostulate, he 

 only elicits an uncivil reply ; for the journey- 

 man is vexed with boisterous solicitations from 

 a crowd of impatient customers, and irritable 

 from inordinate fatigue. The shoe is then 

 heated ; after which the free extremities are 

 turned downward with the hammer, and the 

 ends are hastily beaten into a rude, sharp edge. 

 In some particular cases, the toe is likewise 

 favored by having a clip forged ; but occasion- 

 THE SHOE OF THE HOESE AS allv thc tOB is tumcd downward, forming a 



FREQUENTLY FE08TED. -, . ■, -, „ m . mi . , . , 



third and a front calkm. The article is thus 

 rendered too short for the foot, and, with all shape destroyed, is nailed 

 on to the hoof from which it was recently removed ; and the animal is 

 led from the forge wearing shoes supposed to be properly "frosted." 



The rudeness of the above process has long been appreciated by the 

 more reflective portion of the public. To rectify it, various innovations 

 have been proposed. The meditated improvements, however, have all 

 sank into disuse, because of the attendant expense or of the necessitated 

 exertion. A common man thinks it no trouble to remain through the 

 night in the blacksmith's forge, waiting for his turn, at an expensive, a 

 ruinous, and an inefficient operation, — because other people do the same. 

 But when his turn arrives, perhaps a new set of shoes is spoiled ; for the 

 ordinary "roughing" is generally of no service after the third day, the 

 sharp calkins being by that time ground blunt. 



The huge weight of the animal grinds the edges off the iron, espe- 

 cially upon London stones, so that in three days they are no better than 

 ordinary calkins, and cease to enable the quadruped to progress on ice. 

 The constant removal and renewal of the shoe — the horn each time 

 having to be repierced by fresh nails — seriously injures the hoof, so that 

 frequently animals are forced to remain idle because there remains no 

 more horn on which to fix a fastening. Those horses which escape such 

 a fate, nevertheless carry the scars which commemorate the period of 

 frost for months afterward ; for there' is no horseman, who has the most 

 trivial experience in such matters, but will bitterly complain of the 

 damage done to the quadruped's feet, when it is forced to work through 

 the winter season. 



Some person, many years ago, proposed to use nails with large steel 

 sharp-pointed heads, during the prevalence of frost. This plan was 



