426 
ON THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE 
vicious and dangerous in the field, that Mr. Tynte was obliged 
to part with him. Now it could not, I understood, be proved 
thatBolus had been put to a mare the summer preceding this 
change of his temper in the field, but I rest satisfied that he 
had been. 
For my own part, were I to commence my life again, with my 
present experience of hunters, and to be a horse-breeder for the 
field, I should use great discretion as regards the castrating my 
colts. Those likely to be heavy-topped horses, I would cut at 
a year old ; those short of muscle where it should be, I would 
defer till the second year; and such as were very promising 
indeed, I would not cut at all, until circumstances might oblige 
me to do so ; being convinced that, in the present state of vete- 
rinary science, there is next to no danger at all in the operation, 
at any period of life. 
ON THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF SHOEING 
HORSES. 
[Continued from p. 213.] 
Elasticity varies with the kind of horn at different parts 
of the hoof, in proportion to substance, hardness or softness, 
&c. ; therefore the spring of the hoof must vary in power, and 
be stronger or weaker according to these states of the hoof. 
The ordinary methods of shoeing are founded upon these 
states of the hoof ; and it is very clear, that as loss of substance 
of horn must change the power of the spring, any mode of 
shoeing that does not restore it to the original power, must be 
contrary to the true principles of shoeing, and cannot, there- 
fore, be called art, the imitation of nature without the means. 
Although we may be acquainted with the structure and form- 
ation of particular parts of the foot, yet, it comes into the 
hands of the shoeing smith as a whole piece of mechanism, 
about which he cares little, so that he does not prick the sen- 
sible parts, and to avoid which he has no guide. We will supply 
him with this. 
But what other interest has he in attempting to understand 
anything while the public will not pay for the extra time this 
will take ? Will he get higher wages? No, no! He is told 
by his master, “ that he must shoe so many horses a day ; that 
the hoof and parts within it are composed of springs ; that the 
principles of shoeing are, that the crust .should bear upon the 
shoe only, and the sole never may touch it ; yet the sole at the 
