ARMY FARRIERS AND SHOEING SMITHS. 
829 
To divest him of his prejudices and crooked notions is 
indeed a difficult task, hut must be accomplished before he 
can be deemed trustworthy in the mildest acceptation of the 
term. 
An authority of nearly forty years* experience writes us : 
“ My experience of farriers in the service is that it is im- 
possible to teach them the rudiments of professional know- 
ledge ; their education has been slight, and we get them at an 
age when they are no longer teachable.** 
A circular memo (No. 44, Head Quarters, Sirula, 14th 
July, 1870) in the first and second paragraphs runs thus : “ It 
having been brought to notice that in some cavalry regiments 
and batteries of artillery the farriers and shoeing smiths are 
scarcely up to their work, while in others they know so little 
of their trade, that the shoeing has to be conducted by 
Nalbunds ,* attention is called to this low state of qualification 
where it exists. 
“ Veterinary surgeons are enjoined to take every measure 
in their power to remedy this defect, and to see that the 
farriers and shoeing smiths, and the acting shoeing smiths, 
are carefully instructed in this most essential particular, and 
commanding officers are requested to be good enough to 
encourage such instruction.** 
This is certainly a most deplorable state of affairs, never- 
theless, very true ; a grave acknowledgment for the latter 
part of the ninteenth century. The memo is a contraction 
of the remarks we penned twelve months ago, and confirmative 
of them. 
We append a few observations respecting some of the farriers 
who have been under our charge. 
Farrier No. 1 gives entire satisfaction in the forge and 
shoeing shed, but is disposed to exercise his own fancy in our 
absence ; he has now afair idea of the management of horse* s 
feet in health, though he cannot quite understand why the 
soles and frogs of the troop horses feet should be entrusted 
to the wear and tear of the objects they naturally come in 
contact with, whilst those of chargers, hunters, &c., require 
the free employment of the drawing knife, saying nothing 
of the rasp to the outside of the crust, at least once a 
month. 
Long experience and ordinary observation have compelled 
him to recognise, in a limited sense, the symptoms and 
evidences of common disease and lamenesses, and to under- 
stand their treatment a little. And though he is addicted to 
# Nalbund means, native shoeing smith or farrier. 
