The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-19
THE HORSES SHOES.
Number OF Sets Required in the
Course of Year and How Much
They Cost.


From the Sun.
A work horses shoes cost a good deal
more than its drivers shoes do. Truck
horses, delivery wagon horses, and the
great number of horses used for vari-
Gus working purposes, including many
horses driven to hacks and other pub
lie carriages, are ordinarily shod once
a month at a cost of $3.50, - that the
work horses shoes are likely to cost
$50 a year anyway, and there may be
some additional expense for sharpen
ing and resetting.
Sharpening costs $1.5O. Whether this
is necessary or not depends. of course
primarily upon the weather; it may
depend much upon the time of day the
horse is driven. There may be seasons
in which sharpening is not necessary
Not all drivers get the shoes of their
horses sharpened even when the going
Is slippery. Such going may come
about suddenly and Unexpectedly, and
it may be of brief duration; and then
there are drivers who under ordinary
circumstances take the risk of the
greater cost of a broken shaft or an
injured animal to save the cost Of
sharpening. OF work horses in general,
probably something more than half
have their shoes sharpened when the
going is slippery; there are some, how
ever, whose shoes are almost all kept
sharpened at such times, these being
the horses that work at night and in
the early morning before the sun has
softened the ice or melted it away;
these include horses driven to milk
wagons, bakers horses, and so on, how
often the shoes are sharpened depend
ing on the going.
Usually when a horse is shod he is
shod all around. Sometimes there is
occasion to put on a single shoe, as
when horse throws a shoe. The cost
of single new shoe is one-fourth the
cost of a set; in the case of a work
horse. So cents. The charge for reset
ting the old shoe would be So cents.
Resetting in general, from one shoe up,
costs about one-half. or a little more
than half, as much as fitting a horse
with new shoes. In putting on a single
shoe an old shoe would commonly be
used, to make ii match those remain
ing on. If it is not too much worn, the
shoe the horse has cast would be put
back if the driver picked it up; it is
suitable and it fits. If it has not been
picked up, then a slipper is put on from
the pile in the shop, slipper being the
shop name of the worn shoe taken off
and thrown aside when a horse is re-
shod.
Horses have peculiarities in wearing
their shoes, Just as men do. Some
wear them off more at the toe. some
more at the heel, and some wear them
more on one side than on the other.
Horses shoes wear off more quickly
on granite pavemerts than they do on
asphalt. and the greatly increased use
of asphalt pavement has led to a cor
respondingly increased use of rubber
pads in horses shoes to give the horses
better foothold. Rubber pads, as well
as the shoes, are fitted to the horse's
foot and nailed on with the shoe. Shoes
with rubber pads of this kind, for work
horses, cost put on, 81 or So a set.
They are likely to wear longer than
shoes without pads, but they are COM
| monty replaced or reset at the end of a
month. The necessity for reshoeing the