544 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



without his knowledge. The breaker was, I dare say, practical enough 

 in other details of his calling, but, like the majority of his countrymen, 

 he " had always seen horses shod, and he thought they always must be 

 shod." The pony was sure-footed without shoes, but with them she 

 nearly fell with her master as he rode her home from the breaker's. 

 The shoes were taken off, and the pony did her work admirably with- 

 out them for years. She has done plenty of work, for her owner tells 

 me that he has frequently driven her, and also ridden her, over forty 

 miles in the day. The saying, " One horse can wear out four sets of 

 legs," does not, of course, apply to this pony. The application of this 

 saying is to the shod horse, whose every stej) is made upon iron. As 

 a writer has well said, " It is the shoe^ not the road, that hurts the 

 horse." 



Now, we see that both veterinarian and breaker mistook the nail- 

 lacerated, contracted, unused foot for the natural healthy foot. The 

 former, raised off the ground with an iron ring called a shoe, and with 

 the insensitive sole and frog pared away, is not (when the shoe is first 

 pulled off) fit for contact with the ground. In such a case time must 

 be given for the foot to recover before the unshod horse can be asked 

 to work barefoot. 



I have a cast of the off fore-foot of a mare belonging to Mr. 

 Whitmore Baker. This cast was taken in December, 1882, after the 

 mare had worked barefoot on stony, hilly Devon roads for two years. 

 She was unshod in December, 1880, being then seven years old. This 

 foot shows no signs of undue wear, and I shall be happy to show the 

 cast to any one. — Land and Water. 



HOUSE-BUILDING IN THE EAST. 



IN England house-building is a matter on which, in spite of "jerry " 

 builders, one can look with comparative equanimity. In Indo- 

 China it is a very different affair. Everything that is a source of 

 trouble in the West disappears in those comfortable latitudes. A site 

 can be found practically anywhere. The jungle furnishes, for the 

 trouble of cutting it, as much material as may be required. Com- 

 paratively so little skill is wanted to start as an architect that every 

 man can be his own house-builder, and, if he is tolerably diligent and 

 not too ambitious, might finish his house in a few days. But, as a set- 

 off to all these advantages, it is a very difficult matter to raise up a 

 house which is not rendered dangerous or ineligible by the nature of 

 the soil, the idiosyncrasies of the surrounding spirits, or the revolu- 

 tionary character of the timber used. Building houses is, therefore, 

 a very critical operation, and not to be undertaken without very con- 

 siderable Sabaistic lore and an intimate acquaintance with all the ani- 



