BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 5 
can be derived therefrom, and, when speed is required, there is always 
more or less danger of the shoe being torn off, by the other feet 
coming in contact with it. 
The weight of the shoe must depend upon circumstances, but 
it should in all cases be made as light as the nature of the services 
of the animal will permit. Some curious statistics made by a French 
veterinary professor, show the importance of this consideration. He 
says, “If, at the termination of a day’s work, we calculate the weight 
represented by the mass of iron in the heavy shoes a horse is con- 
demned to carry at each step, we shall arrive at a formidable array of 
figures, and in this way be able to estimate the amount of force use- 
lessly expended by the animal in raising the shoes that overload his 
feet. The calculation I have made possesses an eloquence that dis- 
penses with very long commentaries. Suppose that the weight of a 
shoe is two pounds, it is not excessive to admit that a horse trots at 
the rate of one step every second, or sixty steps a minute. In a 
minute, then, the limb of a horse whose foot carries two pounds, 
makes efforts sufficient to raise a weight of one hundred and twenty 
pounds. For the four limbs this weight in a minute is represented 
by 120 X 4=480 pounds; for the four feet during an hour the 
weight is 28,800 pounds; and for four hours, the mean duration of a 
day’s work, in the French omnibusses, the total amount of weight 
raised has reached the enormous figure of 115,200 pounds. But the 
movement communicated to these 115,200 pounds represents an ex- 
penditure of the power employed by the motor without any useful 
result; and, as the motor is a living one, this expenditure of strength 
represents an exhaustion, or, if you like it better, a degree of fatigue 
proportioned to the effort necessary for its manifestation.” 
It is essential that the shoe should be of the same thickness 
throughout, for this insures a natural position to the foot and limb. 
Where calks are deemed necessary, they should be of equal height at 
toe and heel. The number of nails necessary to retain the shoe in 
its place is a matter of consideration, but hardly merits the contro- 
versies to which the subject has given rise from time to time. Re- 
garding every nail-hole as an injury to the hoof, which it certainly is, 
it is at once evident that the number should not exceed that which 
is absolutely necessary. For the saddle or light-draught horse, not 
more than five or six in the fore, and seven in the hind, are required, 
