OBJECTS OF FARRIERY. 683 



sandcracks ? Those of the officers ; and simply because 

 they are too carefully, too properly shocU 



As Samson's strength was concentrated in his uncut 

 locks of hair, so it may truly be said that the highest de- 

 velopment of a horse's powers is intimately dependent on 

 the integrity of the horn of his feet (which we may assert 

 is also a mass of hairs). And just as the giant was ren- 

 dered helpless by the use of a razor, at the instigation of 

 the crafty Delilah, so is the noble soliped in a great measure 

 deprived of his strength and graceful movements by the 

 unjustifiable and barbarous employment of the knife and 

 rasp. There can scarcely be any doubt that the practice 

 of paring the soles and frogs, and raising them from con- 

 tact with the ground, by which they are thrown into dis- 

 use, and waste just as the muscles of a man's arm would 

 if the limb were tied up for years, induces a hereditary 

 tendency to contraction and deformity of the feet, as well 

 as the occurrence of several serious maladies which affect 

 them. 



Taking into account the amount of work horses may 

 have to perform, and making every allowance for its 

 effects during a lengthened period, there can be no doubt 

 whatever that the feet will remain nearly, or quite, as 

 perfect after twenty or thirty years' service as they were 

 before being submitted to the farrier's care, if only a 

 rational system of shoeing be pursued. 



The indispensable art of farriery, while serving the pur- 

 pose for which it was originally intended, should also, as we 

 have so often insisted, be conservative in its relations to- 

 wards the foot. The natural form and functions of this all- 

 important orgtm should be maintained intact ; and even 



