178 HORSE-SHOEING. 



portion of these animals are employed several hours every day~ 

 conveying heavy loads np and down very badly-made and exces- 

 sively-steep roads ; no calkins or toe-pieces are worn, no slipping* 

 is ever observed, while the sprains and injuries arising from the 

 use of calkins are unknown. 



This immunity I attribute not alone to the absence of these 

 projections, but to the care always taken to keep the hoofs healthy, 

 properly adjusted, and strong, with the frogs resting as much as 

 possible on the ground. 



In attempting to prevent slipping, and to afford a firm hold of 

 the ground, without having recourse to calkins, a great object is 

 to diminish the wide surface of metal of the shoe, without inter- 

 fering, as little as possible, with its resistance to wear. The 

 simplest method of doing this is to merely change the bevel on 

 the foot-surface of the ordinary shoe to its ground-surface — 

 making what is now concave, flat, and what is now the flat, slip- 

 pery ground-surface, concave. The effect is almost magical in the 

 security it gives the animal during progression, and is best exem- 

 plified in the case of the hunter, which is usually shod with shoes 

 of this description. Here, again, we are only imitating Nature 

 by copying the concavity of the sole. There can be no doubt 

 whatever as to the advantages to be gained by using such shoes. 

 The sole is pretty well supported as well as the whole of the wall, 

 by the wider surface of the metal above, while the narrow surface 

 toward the ground affords security of tread. 



For general purposes this is an excellent form of shoe, but to 

 make it still more efficient I devised a modification of it some 

 years ago, which is an exact reproduction in iron of the ground- 

 surface of this part of the hoof ; it has been employed on the road 

 and in the field with most satisfactory results both on the fore and 

 hind feet. 



