THE HOOF AND ITS CULTURE. 
357 
This is better than tricks with spreaders, which are seldom 
reliable. 
When animals have been long affected and must either go 
to pasture or remain idle in the stable during treatment, re¬ 
duce as much as possible wall, sole and frog. Do not make 
the feet tender, neither is it necessary to cause them pain or 
draw blood, even in the worst cases; be sure, however, to 
keep the hoofs soft, and use on soft ground. 
A great mistake has always been made by paring, for ex¬ 
ample, the sole, and leaving the wall, the frog and the bars 
untouched ; every part must be reduced in proper proportion, 
and the more thoroughly it is done the better, for then it im¬ 
mediately starts on its reparative course. Mechanical inter¬ 
ferences with the circulation, crowded structures like the de¬ 
fective substance, horny lamina, and other transformed and 
degraded tissues, such as the unthrifty horn, which are a con¬ 
tinual source of disturbance to the extremities, but can be 
so easily relieved that pernicious growths like enlarged 
cartilages, etc., are arrested and gradually diminish until 
they become almost as natural as if they had never been in 
volved in one of the adverse changes 1 have characterized as 
a secondary or physio-pathological tr: nsformation, a stage 
beyond the so-called physiological tissue changes, whether 
associated with atrophy or hypertrophy. 
Nothing impels the advanced student of hoof culture to 
recognize its importance more than the benign methods de¬ 
manded, and the success attending its treatment, both when 
the hoof itself is diseased and when it is the cause of defects 
and diseases on a remote part of the limb or body. I hardly 
dare to remark that in all probability defective hoofs have 
much to do with other defects, such as roaring, wind sucking, 
cribbing, weaving, atrophied muscles, fistulous withers, poll 
evil, etc. If this subject had first been announced by some 
French or German professor it might have been considered 
favorably, but emanating from one near home, it cannot be 
considered in less than a generation, and even then the vet¬ 
erinary surgeons who practice hoof culture can be counted 
on the fingers of one hand. They cannot grasp the principle. 
