Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1881-02-04
SPEED THE PL0W. A."
Should Horses be Shod.

Should Horses be Shod.
The question of shoeing horses is
discussed at length in Fraser's Maga-
zine for December. The writer thinks
that horses are now worn out at least
fourteen years before they ought to
be, and that in this United Kingdom
loses 1875, 100000 every twenty-one
years. Different causes for the injury
of horses are mentioned, but the wri-
ter thinks that abuses of their feet are
the most serious, and he asks:
eff the working of the traditionary
system leaves the horse wreck almost
before he has reached his prime, if the
lessening of the weight of iron and of
the number of nails used in fixing the
iron has been followed by direct and
important benefits in every instance,
if even those who hold that a horse
must be shod have discovered that that
which thsy ook on as protection to
the fore feet is merely harmful to the
hind feet, is it possible to stifle the
suspicion that this insignificant rem
nant ofa system so fruitful in mischief
may have no magic power, and, in
short, that the horse may do just as
we'll without them? In his reply to
this he says:
"The plain truth is the difference
in the quality Of the soil, be it hard or
soft, stony or sandy, smooth and slip
perry, are of comparatively little i'm
portance to the horse whose feet are
as nature made them. In the words
of Free Lance, the unshod horse can
successfully deal with all roads : and
assured ly no one will dream Of assert
ing that shod horses can do this, for
on the setting in of frost, for instance,
they cannot be worked until certain
ceremonies shall have been gone thro'
at the blacksmith's forge. The un-
shod horse can tread firmly on the
slime of wood pavement when shod
horses are slipping and struggling in
agony around them he can gallop on
ice, and trot for miles together ON the
hardest and toughest flint roads, with
far more ease and comfort than horses
whose feet are shod with iron or even
with gutta-percha. Free Lance just
ly remarks that IF they could not there
would be an end of the thing, for evil
IDENTIFY the horse should be able to 60
anywhere and everywhere, and at a
moments notice." 1t seems hard to
produce the conviction that the natur-
al sole of the horses foot is almost ina.
penetrable, that it is so hard and firm
as to protect the sensible sole from all
harm, and that all feet exposed to hard
objects are made harder by the con-
tact, provided only that the sole is
never pared. This adequacy of the
horses foot to all demands that may
be made upon it is forcibly illustrated
by Mr.. Bracy Clark, who, like Mr..
Douglas and Mr.. Mayhem, contented
himself with striving to produce per-
feet shoe, although he acknowledged
that if we wish to appreciate the fall
beauty Of its structure, we must dis
miss from our views the miserable. CO.
creed, shod foot entirely and consider
the animal in pure state of nature
using his foot without any defense.
Probably Mr.. Clark thought that,
though We may consider it in its nat
ural state, few can ever so behold it,
as all horses in civilized countries are
in greater or less degree brought un-
der artificial conditions. The plea is
fallacious. The horse is clearly in.
tended by nature to serve as domes-
ticated animal, and SO long as We do
not interfere with the proper functions
of any part of its body (and the abom-
ination of bearing reins and other such
practices interfere with them grevious-
ly and even fatally We bring it under
no conditions which it was not design
eddy calculated to encounter. Private
owners and companies whose horses
must be numbered by troops are nat
urally irritated by the accidents con-
stantly occurring on smooth and shiny
pavements or on rough and hard stone
or flint roads, and in their disgust
they now offer rewards for the inven-
ton of a shoe which shall render the
horse Indifferent to the materials over
which he has to pass, and have clam
ored for uniform system of pavements
in all towns. 1t seems strange indeed
that no misgiving seems to cross their
minds that they are taking thought
Of the wrong surface, and that they
are scared by false terrors when they
dread the contact Of the unshod hoof
with sand, granite, flint, wood or as
phalt. It cannot, indeed, be too
strongly insisted on that the foot oil
the horse in no way needs to rest on
soft and yielding surfaces"
Farm Notes.
Give pure water to stock.
Tao roa1 aahoe or wood dusf or both