ENGLISH AND GERMAN SHOEING. 
701 
tracted, and those of the older began to resume their proper 
form. Why these results followed it were tedious to par¬ 
ticularise, but of the facts I can offer the testimony of per¬ 
sonal knowledge. 
If the reader can imagine a roughly made shoe, such as 
is generally found on the hind feet of our London cab-horses, 
put on to the fore foot of a high-actioned, sound, and good 
footed horse, he will have an unexaggerated idea of the shoe 
which the poor brutes in my friend^s possession had to travel 
in, and also of the fore shoes in general use in Germany. 
The evil results may be anticipated. 
My friend found, however, that something was yet wanted 
to complete his success, and that something he determined to 
obtain without hesitation and irrespective of cost. Selecting 
one of the most intelligent of his farriers, he brought him 
to London and placed him in a forge, under the eye of a 
master who devoted much attention to the subject. The 
man availed himself of this opportunity with eagerness, and 
prosecuted his studies with such avidity and success, that on 
my visit it was evident the expense and trouble were not 
throwm away. His patron had been liberal in adopting all 
the accessories which could stimulate and help the worker. 
I visited the workshop about a month since, and found a 
modern, well-built, well-lighted, clean, and well-ventilated 
building, such as would shame even very many English 
forges, containing an anvil and tools from Pfeil and Stedall, 
models of shoes—old and new—designed to show that there 
w r as a uniformity in the principle of shoeing light and heavy 
horses, and last, but not least, a workman who thoroughly 
understood everything shown him on his English visit, and 
who had returned with the generous determination not only 
to practise what he had learned, but to communicate it to 
others. It was interesting to see the delight he felt in 
recounting his adventures w 7 ith his unbelieving countrymen, 
and how they had been won over to his cause. 
The authorities of the Veterinary College of Dresden have 
entertained the subject, and notwithstanding the several 
theories thereon with which I do not agree, they have gained 
much in abolishing calkins to fore shoes. 
I noticed also, that in Paris many of the heavy cart-horses 
are now shod without even calkins to the hind shoes. Now r , 
if the fact is borne in mind that the heavy stone and building 
materials in that capital are principally conveyed in two¬ 
wheeled carts, and that the horses have to travel on all 
descriptions of roadway—Macadam and rough pavement in¬ 
cluded—it will be seen how little claim the Times correspon- 
