388 



NEW ENGLAND FAR^MER. 



Aug. 



ON SHOEING- HORSES. 



Blacksmiths, like persons engaged in other oc- 

 cupations, are not always good workmen merely 

 because they stand by the forge and smite the hot 

 iron. Another person, who never passed half an 

 hour in a smithy, might explain the true prin- 

 ciples of shoeing better than he who has passed a 

 lifetime in the actual practice of the art. It is 

 not the hand, but the Jicad, which makes the skil- 

 ful and accomplished workman ; and no men In 

 the world are so tenacious of their opinions as 

 those who have been practicing under an error 

 all their lives. They will not listen to the philos- 

 ophy of the matter which they assert, for the rea- 

 son that their habit of mind has never run in 

 that channel. These remarks apply equally to 

 other trades, and to teaching and farming. ISIany 

 of the best farmers in our knowledge, men whose 

 principles and practices run together and produce 

 the most profitable results from the capital em- 

 ployed, are retired merchants, artisans, ship- 

 masters or ministers ; and many of the most slov- 

 enly and unskilful farmers in our knowledge are 

 those who were born and brought up on a farm, 

 and never engaged in any other occupation ! It is 

 mind that makes the man, the blacksmith, the 

 carpenter, seaman, or anything else of this na- 

 ture, — not the fact that the man has been engaged 

 in the occupation for thirty or forty years. 



These remarks are suggested by reading an ar- 

 ticle in the Manchester (N. H.) Mirror, upon the 

 subject of horses and horse-shoeing. The lively 

 and versatile editor of that paper knows a thing 

 or two about horses himself — and he is deter- 

 mined that all the rest of mankind shall know as 

 much, if he can only get it out of the smiths, and 

 the world will read his paper. We hope he will 

 succeed in securing both — for the horse-knowl- 

 edge is greatly needed, and the Mirror is no lag- 

 behind, but a living, moving hebdomadal, that 

 will wake the reader up, and be useful to him, un- 

 less he is dreadful sleepy ! 



But without some of friend Clark's expurga- 

 tions, emendations, additions, alterations and 

 corrections, w'e doubt whether his "hundreds of 

 letters from smiths already received" will eluci- 

 date and settle the knotty question, how shall a 

 horse bo shod ? As a sample of these letters he 

 gives one from Bristol, vvhich he says is "sensible 

 and practical for the most part, but its theory of 

 shoeing interfering horses will be controverted by 

 high authority." The same letter goes on to tell 

 us how over-reaching horses can be made to trav- 

 el clear by shoeing. He says — "This is not so 

 ■well understood by blacksmiths, generally, as in- 

 terfering. Long shoes should be used in order to 

 remedy this ; the forward feet should be pared 

 low at the heels, and leave the toe so as to cause 



the foot to rise at the heel and give the hind feet 

 a chance to shoot under as the others rise. The 

 hind shoes should be set on as usual, but should 

 be made with a heavy toe, and turned to give the 

 forward one a chance to get out of the way." 



As we understand this matter, the exact reverse 

 of this teaching is the philosophical view of it. 

 For instance : a horse strikes his hind foot against 

 the forward one, because the forward foot is not 

 taken away quick enough. What is the remedy ? 

 Certainly not to have the forward feet "Zozy at the 

 heels," for that would keep the foot down longer 

 and make the interference worse. Nor is it de- 

 sirable that the hind foot should pass under the 

 forward one. To prevent over-reaching, then, try 

 this plan, which can be done without paring the 

 hoof at all. Make the Jieel calks on the forward 

 shoes a little longer than usual, so that, the foot 

 being raised a little behind, the horse will take it 

 up quicker than he has been accustomed to. Now 

 make the heel calks of the hind shoes a little low- 

 er, and what is gained by accel-erating the forward 

 foot and keeping back the hind one, will give 

 time to get the fore foot out of the way, and there 

 is no more over-reaching. We have cured very 

 bad cases of over-reaching by this simple pro- 

 cess, and never knew it to fail when properly at- 

 tended to. 



We have as much faith in the skill of black- 

 smiths in 'their business as we have in that of 

 those engaged in other occupations, and the more 

 of them that read this article the better, if it only 

 leads them to regard principles more and theo- 

 ries less. 



THE HEARING OP THE HIPPOPOTAMI. 



The managers of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris 

 have had a series of bad luck in the rearing of 

 hippopotami. Their maternal hippopotamus has 

 now given birth to three young ones, but each 

 has been lost when but a few days or weeks old ; 

 one, if not tv,-o, were killed by the m.other, and 

 the last, saved from a similar fate by immediate 

 removal, died with convulsions brought on by 

 teething. The circumstances are given with af- 

 fecting detail. The birth was on the 18th of May, 

 and the infant animal (a male) was received on 

 the brink of the basin of the rotunda, in the arms 

 of his keeper, and immediately taken away. The 

 maternal hippopotamus had no time to see her 

 ofi'spring, and yet she indulged in a long fit of 

 anger. Without the aid of an enormous vthip 

 with which the keeper was furnished, he could 

 hardly have secured his retreat, but by its aid he 

 succeeded in getting out of the basin and shut- 

 ting the grate behind him. The young hippopot- 

 amus was placed in a basin exposed to the sun, 

 and he immediately took to svi-imming and splash- 

 ing about as though he had taken lessons from 

 his father and mother. He was fed on warm 

 cow's milk, which he drank with avidity ; in four 

 days he consumed nearly three gallons of it. 

 He slept a good part of each day on a bed of straw 



