UNFAVOURABLE RESULTS. 605 



hunting-iield. It is scarcely necessary to say that none of 

 these articles gave evidence of the most trifling acquaint- 

 ance with the subject of horse-shoeing, and many of them 

 appeared to be influenced solely by the special exigencies 

 of an embryo horse-shoe company, destined to invest 

 money and make fortunes out of one of the most pre- 

 tentious inventions perhaps ever introduced to the notice 

 of the British public. No horseman, nor yet any com- 

 petent man of science whose opinion is worth having, 

 has yet ventured, so far as I am aware, to commend it 

 in this country ; and all the proper experiments hitherto 

 made with it have, I believe, turned out unsatisfactory, or 

 complete failures. As might have been anticipated, it 

 has proved a most injurious method of shoeing; the per- 

 centage of crippled horses has been very great, and far 

 beyond that attending the ordinary improper mode of 

 shoeing ; the number of shoes cast and lost has been far 

 above the usual average, and horses have cut, stumbled, 

 tumbled, and limped from corns, to my certain knowledge, 

 quite as much, if not more, than with the worst applica- 

 tion of the old system. This appears to be acknowledged 

 so far, as the ' only humane method' now tolerates hot fit- 

 ting apparently to any extent, and also sanctions the em- 

 ployment of calkins at the extremities of the heels, with 

 other modifications, which leave one in doubt how much 

 of the American invention will remain after a few months' 

 longer trial in England. Where it has now and again 

 succeeded in gaining a testimonial, has no doubt been 

 largely due either to these modifications, or to circum- 

 stances in which any other ordinary shoe would have 

 been equally successful. 



