CHARLIER SYSTEM — TIPS. 67 



fear of her slipping, although the horse that wa? 

 marking the ice, that had calks on, two inches thick, 

 did slip. There is hardly a person who owns a 

 horse, who, if you put him four inches of iron on 

 the toe, would think he could go more than half a 

 mile from home without the horse breaking down.' 

 Yet so thoroughly was Mr. Bowditch convinced of 

 the value of tips let into the hoof, that he had 

 found it worth while to establish his own forge 

 for preparing them on his own farm. He says 

 that other people will not patronise his forge, be- 

 cause he will not allow shoeing to be done in it 

 on any principle but his own: and so his forge 

 does not bring him in the revenue it otherwise 

 would. He refuses to become a party to propa- 

 gating mistaken ideas. People come to him, see- 

 ing his success, with lame horses ; and when he 

 has cured them, he says they go back to their old 

 farrier. Both Mr. Eussell and Mr. Bowditch appear 

 to have been convinced, in the first instance, that 

 routine was leading them astray ; and, like sensible 

 men, they saw that the only way to escape from it 

 was to throw aside entirely all professional opinion 

 on the matter, and have their own way (as did the 

 Messrs. Smither, here in London), Mr. Bowditch 

 going so far as to start a forge of his own, over 

 which he could be, and was, entirely master. He 

 says, comically enough, that it was not a commercial 

 success, because his neighbours only patronised him 

 when they were in difficulties, out of which he alone 

 could get them, and then they went their way ; but 



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