Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-10-10

during the early days of the great
fire. From all parts Of the interior
came words of hope and encourage
ment. The people were as deter
mined and steady as they are to.
day, scouting the very idea Of dis
trust or panic.
10 sum up in one sentence, the
west is to-day as sound financially
as any community under the sun,
and she has the wherewithal in her
immense surplus of cereals to pay
all her immediate indebtedness
From these considerations-and we
believe none will challenge their
truth-we can see no good reason
for the exercise of any but a hope
full and confident spirit in the pres
ent exigency. Panics are as often
based upon nothing as upon sub
stantial causes, and there is no rea-
son why the people of the great
northwest should become partici-
pants in the excitement which has
arisen frQ0 the downfall of reckless
spectators in railway securities.
What we need is simply to exercise
that habitual GOODNESS and steadi.
ness which are SO eminently char
acteristlc of the people of the west,
and all will be WE'LL Chicago In
ter Ocean.
Against Shooting Horses on the Prai-
rio.
Il drive and work span of 1000
pound horses, which have not had
shoe on their feet for five years,
and never on their hind feet, and l
always regretted the mistake PUT
ting shoes on their fore feet, even in
one winter. ] avoid all heavy haul
ing while ice prevails, but drive
them even up and down hills, as
fast as the best Of shod horses.
They were made lame by shoeing,
but never since, and their hoofs
are almost rs hard as iron istself.
So say, keep shoes off colts as long
as possible. If their feet become
tender, let nature have little time
to inceease her powers of resistance,
and then go on again. 1t is amaz
ing to all inveterate horse-shoers
to see what nature will do for the
feet of our horses, if we only give
permission. Against the practice
of early, constant and indiscrimin-
ate shooting, urge the following
considerations, viz: The time, trou-
bic and cost, the breaking of a
hoof-by shooting and becoming
tender-if a shoe comes off at a
distance from a blacksmith shop;
the liability to distressing limpings
and constant lameness from inter-
fering corks; the habitual corking
of themselves, causing long times of
lameness, and often split hoof for
life; the serious consequences that
attend the kicking OF sharp-shoed
horses; the putting of iron weights
upon those extreMities that Nature
intended to be as light as possible.
My young span ''Lightfoot'' and
"Fleetwing," who 60 three and a
half miles to the postofiice and re-
turn in from forty to sixty minutes,
are not likely very soon to exchange
the elastic step of the light shod
Yankee for the dead tramp of the
English peasant, whose double
souled, iron-spiked, or plated clogs
are we'll nigh inhuman. l have
known very heavy horses, unshod
when young, attain an elastic, light |
step, that lasted all their lives, even
though shod at later period.
"But do your horses never fall |
upon the ice?"
I answer yes, about as often as
shed ones, and with this difference;
they have thereby damaged them
selves with their ever dangerous
corks, while mine are unframed,
and soon learn better than to fall, if
ever SO icy. speak not of heavy
draft horses on macademized streets
and levees, or of roadsters in a rock
bound country, but of prairie farm
horses, and thousands of others,
too, which are SO very needlessly
shod. say, begin right with the
next colt, and keep the horseshoe
mo shon off the farm.