226 UNASKED ADVICE. 



would not pick up stones or ball with snow. As regards 

 tlie stones, this is pretty correct ; but the snow statement 

 is quite wrong. So large a snowball does not form in the 

 foot of a horse shod with this shoe; but it stays there 

 longer than in a common one, so perhaps that makes 

 them even in that respect. Finally, the General Omnibus 

 Company (which had adopted the Goodenough shoe, has 

 discontinued it. No doubt the promoters of the shoe 

 could give some good reasons for this ; but facts are 

 stubborn things, and a firm of business men, using many 

 horseshoes, are not likely to give up those which they 

 found were " the best and cheapest in the world," and 

 which these shoes are said to be — by their own advertise- 

 ment. The next and last shoe that deserves notice is the 

 Charlier j and, lest I should be accused of undue par- 

 tiality to it, I will give my experience of it at length, as I 

 have done with the others. A short description may be 

 needed. As it is some time since the shoe was dis- 

 cussed, the Charlier shoe is, in a few words, a shoe 

 which is the width of the crust to which it is to be 

 applied, and rather thicker than, or of the same thick- 

 ness as the sole. The foot is prepared for the shoe by 

 shortening" the wall all round the foot, but leaving the 

 sole, thus making a groove. The shoe is accurately 

 fitted to the foot, placed in the groove, and nailed in the 

 ordinary manner. Any smith can make the shoe, and can 

 make it alone, whilst it takes two men to make the 

 common one. When the shoe is on, the horse stands on 

 his foot as if he were unshod, the outer border of the 

 sole, the frog, and the bars combining with the crust to 

 sustain the weight of the horse, which with the common 

 shoe is carried entirely by the crust. Consequently, the 

 foot being in a natural position, the horse is comfortable. 



