6 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



creasing a hundred-fold the value of the horse, and testi- 

 fies to what an apparently insignificant operation very 

 much of our immense progress in civilization has de- 

 pended. I refer to the art of shoeing, by which, in arm- 

 ing that portion of the horse's hoof coming in contact 

 with the ground, and sustaining the whole weight, while 

 it receives the full force of the propelling power, would 

 (in our northern climate, at least) under the strain of load- 

 bearing or draught, soon be destroyed, and the animal 

 rendered useless, injury is not only averted, but the utility 

 and power of the horse are largely increased. 



An art which has exerted some influence on the des- 

 tinies of man, and lent its aid to the restless wave of 

 human action, deserves some notice from those who care 

 to note the sources and influences on which improvement 

 and increased communication have relied ; and if this be a 

 modest one, it is at least endowed with all the more in- 

 terest in consequence of its being so closely related to the 

 conservation of the best qualities of the noblest quadruped 

 on earth. 



In a state of nature the hoof requires no protection. 

 The solidity and toughness of its inferior border ; the ab- 

 sence of artificial roads ; nothing but the weight of the 

 body to be supported ; and the matter of which the 

 horny case is composed never being subjected to any 

 other influences than those which it is naturally adapted 

 to resist, all tend to obviate any injurious amount of attri- 

 tion in the roaming-at-will life of the feral horse. But in 

 connection with climate, domestication alters, more or 

 less, the conditions on which the horn depends for its in- 

 tegrity as an efficient protection to the highly sensitive 



