St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-01-10
HORsESH0EING NOT so SIMPLE
EducatiGa in the Trade II Needed,
and There II Demand for
Schools In the States.

ana There IL a Demand 1Or
| Schools in the States.
| Horseshoeing has become a sci.
eace. The horseshoer learns how to
| TT shoes to cure lameness, how to
shoe and cure hollow chests in rum
| down, gallant steeds, and how to
change the gait of a horse by the
simple method of fitting his shoes
to the gait desired, says the New
York Sun.
He must know something of horse
anatomy, and the more he knows the
better. In fact, he must have spe-
cial education for his branch of in
dustry, if he would do well.
One of the officers of the national
association complains that the aver
age apprentice is not learned in the
principles of horse anatomy, and
fears that until he is, the trade will
lag in the rear of others. Another
boldly advocates state schools in
horseshoeing to teach the rudiments
of the art. They are all enthusiasts,
and they have discovered so many
new things in horseshoeing in the
last year that $50 large pages of the
trade organ are needed to tell them.
A horseshoer from the west has
found out how to shoe a horse SO
that his habit of hitting his ankles,
his shins or his knees, can be cured.
He explained his method for the
benefit of his fellow craftsmen.
Another has discovered that in
most cases sunken chests in horses
are due to tender feet, and bad shoe
ing, and has invented shoe with
heels, to fit the case.
Still another, for the conventions
benefit, went scientifically into the
great eating question from 64-year-
long study of it, and told how to fit
shoes so as to get the top speed out
of the animals under treatment.
Horseshoeing, according to this
veteran, is still in its infancy, though
it is trade centuries old Upon
the mastery of anatomy and physi-
ology depends the competency of the
profession, he says, and nothing
would more conduce to this end than
the establishment of a college which
should be made a government insti-
tuition for the benefit of the horse.
The method of shoeing horses now
are vastly different from those of
years ago. Time has wrought
changes.
The artificial highways over which
the animal does his work have tend
ency to demoralize the strongest hoof,
and it requires skill and science to
keep the feet in the healthy condi-
ton with which nature originally en-
dowed him. Structural changes in
the hoof are the cause of much lame
ness among horses, after being used
for length of time over the unyield-
ing pavements of the city, and it is
impossible to follow the same rule of
shoeing in given number Of cases,
SO there is the more need, accord
ing to the experts in the trade, for
a school or schools where the art can
be studied and the speed and condi-
ton OF the horse improved thereby.
OF course American horseshoers
are ahead in the trade. They have
taken improved methods and appli-
ances to all parts of the world, and
have seen them snapped up by for
eign blacksmiths.
The convention learned Of the adj
ventures of one of it's members
the Kaffirs in South Africa,
and of another in far-away Alaska.
He who had been to Alaska brought
back discouraging report. There
are few horses there, and little work
even at high prices for the horse
sheer. The biggest days work he had
was putting on 20 shoes.
It paid him $50, but with Alaskan
prices that was nothing much, and
he came home. The folks who made
money out there, he reported, were
those who sold things to eat, and he
told this instance of their enter
prise:
"a married couple came to town
bringing with them pair of half
starved chickens. These chickens
were bought by an enterprising res
taurateur, who hung out a sign for
two days with Chicken Dinner To-
on it.
"About 200 people sat down to that
dinner, and there was plenty
IF chicken for everybody. The res
taurant man had lot of it packed
away in cans. He made soup of it,
and got three dollars plate for the
chicken soup and a little of the
meat. He paid $50 for the
two chickens"