SHOEING. 431 



their manufacture bearing a tensile strain of seventy-eight thousand 

 pounds to the square inch. 



The power of the factory is gained by a large stream of water, 

 with a head of seventy-two feet, acting on an overshot wheel sixty 

 feet in diameter, with buckets twenty-two feet long and six feet 

 four inches deep, the whole wheel weighing over three hundred 

 tons. Connected with the establishment is a horse-shoe museum, 

 comprising many hundred specimens of shoes of all ages and all 

 countries, collected together at much expense with a view to im- 

 provement upon the old types. There are now three different 

 patterns manufactured, and they will furnish any other pattern 

 desired, if ordered in sufiBcient quantities. The cost of the shoe to 

 the blacksmith, is about a cent and a half per pound above the 

 price of the iron. 



Independent of the immense curtailment of expense, the advan- 

 tage of' machinery directed by one master mind over the old sys- 

 era, or rather want of system of individual effort and incongruous 

 labor, is great; and it should be the aim of the manufacturer, 

 as self-interest will dictate, to study and experiment to attain the 

 most desirable pattern, in width of web, seating, fullering, position 

 of nail holes, and quality of iron, and the mechanics will necessarily 

 adopt his improvements. 



In short, it should be an aim in shoeing a horse, as in man, to 

 make a fit as neat and easy, and of as light material as would be 

 adapted to its use, and experience has proven, that heavy shoes 

 with high calks and toes, are not necessary for successful hauling 

 over our city cobble stones, or hard roadways. 



In this article we have given no positive directions for shoeing, 

 judging the art in its present state too imperfect to satisfy this 

 progressive age, but have sought rather to stimulate inquiry and 

 experiment, that may lead to improvement in the system. 



k 



