292 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
goes by the name of the concave shoe —that it is not calculated 
for all kinds of feet. That every horse who enters a forge has 
a foot which will bear, all at once, the transfer of the concave 
for the ordinary shoe, we do not mean to assert; but that every 
horse who has not a pumice foot, or a foot so flat that it ap¬ 
proaches to pumice, can, if not immediately, in the course of no 
very long time, by proper manipulation of his hoof on the part 
of the farrier, be brought to wear one, is to us undeniable. The 
real truth is, that the farrier who adopts the concave as his 
general shoe, cannot carry on his business without some—per¬ 
haps at times a good deal of—extra trouble; since he will in 
this case have to adapt the shoe to the foot: not having a shoe 
at his elbow which cannot fail to answer every kind and de- 
scription of foot in his forge; the latter being, in his estima¬ 
tion, on this very account, incomparably the best shoe for or¬ 
dinary use. 
Again, it may likewise be said,'that such election or altera¬ 
tion of shoe for this or that foot may answer all very well for 
regiments of cavalry, or studs, or establishments of horses 
wherein time and opportunity serve to enable farriers employed 
in them to take such extra pains ; but that in private or general 
practice the case is altogether altered. We are ready to admit 
that a farrier so restricted would not be able to shoe so many 
horses a day as he can under the present system; but this, we 
submit, ought not to operate against the introduction of a practice 
possessing such advantages over the old one as we have en¬ 
deavoured to point out. It is not the number of horses shod 
per diem that ought to weigh with us as an argument for persist¬ 
ing in any one plan of shoeing; but the plan ox principle itself 
on which such shoeing is performed. 
Another very important improvement on shoeing as ordinarily 
practised—one which first met our eye some few years ago, and 
one with which, after tonsiderable trial of it, we are much 
pleased—is, instead of paring out the sole with a drawing-knife, 
after the usual fashion, simply to remove from it such superficial 
flakes or layers of horn as have become under-run with dirt, and 
are already in a state of exfoliation and separation: leaving 
entire, as a covering to the living sole, a semi-dead layer of 
horn, which serves, like a leathern sole, as a defence to it against 
contusions from stones, &c. as well as a preservative against 
the evaporation of its moisture or “juices,” and consequently 
against its becoming hard and inelastic and brittle. For the 
purpose of such superficial paring—if paring it can be called— 
as is here recommended, the toe-knife, with a little assistance 
from the hammer, suffices: a drawing knife, under such cir¬ 
cumstances, being rather an objectionable aid in the smith’s 
hands, simply for the reason of his being apt to be induced to 
do too much with it. 
