Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1847-03-18

twelve hundred pounds is to be moved
at all degrees of velocity, and its motion
is to be abruptly checked every instant,
without injury TO the machine. This the
horse does at every step. The bones of
his legs, one would suppose, must either
punch through their horny extremities,
or break, with the suddenness Of the
conclusion. Observe the continuance to
protect them. A compound string in
tervenes between the crust and the sole
of the foot; a bundle Of thin plates, e.
lastic yet strong, and arranged like the
leaves Of book, fills the cavity of the
hoof; and upon these, by adaptations
which we have not space infinitely to
describe, play the bones of the Leg
Such is the very general description of
the foundation-as it has been wttily
called-of a horse. Mr.. Miles evident
ly speaks of those things which he has
seen. He gives no theory, but lays down
results derived from the sad experience
Of horse owner. Speaking Of the inn
portance of sound feet, he says, "when
alive to the importance of this matter
when they remember that the natural
life of horse is from thrty-6ve to forty
years, and that three-fourths of them
die or are destroyed under twelve years
old-used up, with scarcely foot to
go upon; take it, they will be very
apt to transfer their sympathies from the
groom and his trouble, to their own
pockets and the horses welfare. A re-
mark which every one who has owned
a horse will admit to be true. But how
are horses to be saved? How are
twelve or fifteen years good labor to be
got, instead of the usual five or even
three years Mr.. Miles tells us that
the cause Of premature decay in horses
is want of exercise and proposes as
a remedy, the use of large bor stalls,
into which the horse may be turned
loose when not on the road, and keep.
ing him in use, at the very least least,
two hours day. "The rest, and not
the work, has wrought the ill.," says he,
and he is right. We know horse, now
twenty-five years old, as good as he was
in 1885, the date of our mutual &C.
quaintance and friendship, whose days
have been passed in family where he
is pet--a member of the household.
John is harnessed at minutes warning
and on the slightest excuse whether to
fetch the children from school, friend
from the railroad depot, or some butter
from the farm, John must assist. He
ploughs and harrows, and on the of-side
with the colt, hauls vast wagon loads
of potatoes. If a forced march Of sixty
miles in a day is to be made, to serve
some catiff with a declaration (John's
master is a lawyer,) away goes John in
light wagon, with all the promptness
of a Sheriff. If scrub-race is 10 come
off, the oldest boy often manages to get
saddle on old John and take trot !;
wherein it is unanimously allowed by
the knowing ones, that for a spurt Of
half a mile or so, T" the old boss can't be
beat in these diggins." Such has been
the result of work and we commend
old Johns true history to our readers,
evidence of Mr.. Miles's wisdom.
Shoeing, Of course, engages a large
part of Mr.. Miles's attention; and his
views thereon are most judicious. He
shows that the common practice of nail
ing all round, by preventing due expan
sion of the foot, soon destroys the abili-
ty to expand at all and he has proved,
by experiment, that mailing with five or
six nails on the cutters and the toe
only, are sufficient. He enters very
fully upon this branch of his subject,
and has handled it like man who used
his own eyes instead of his coachman's,
and presumed to know how his horse
should be shod as well as smith, whose
interest in the matter is exactly the value
of his shoes.
Of turning pleasure horses to grass
in summer, or oul in the barn-yard in
winter, Mr.. M. thinks unfavorably. A
box stall well covered with wet saw dust,
he finds far better for horse crippled
in his feet; a most excellent mode of
conveying GOODNESS and moisture TO the
diseased part. Turning out valuable
nag is, under the best circumstances and
under the owners eye, very hazardous.
Stalking, bites and kicks, bare bones and
a starting coat, are the results in this
vicinity. You may send valuable horses
to the country in charge of well known
horsemen, and the poor beasts will come
back haggard, scared, and with every
rib protruding like the rungs of a ladder
their feet even the worse for the long
neglected shoes, or badly broken where
the shoes have been removed. Never
turn out good horse.
Mr.. Miles's work, (for it deserves the
name,) contains several we'll drawn en-
cravings of shoes, good and bad. by
comparison of which the authors argu-
ments will be enforced, and clear ideas
of right shoeing obtained by little at
tention. Best of all, every page show.
true love and kindness of heart for the
poor animal whose generous strength i.
so freely laid out for our pride, or pleas
ure, or profit, and whose well being de
mands all the care from his owner, which
domestication has made him unable t,