water, boiled until the strength is extracted from the weed, and when cool enough, bathe the mule well with it from head to foot, let him dry off, and do not curry him for a day or two.  Then curry him well, and if the itching appear again, repeat the bathing two or three times, and it will produce a cure.  The same treatment will apply in case of lice, which frequently occurs where mules are kept in large numbers.  Mercury should never be used in any form, internally or externally, on an animal so much exposed as the mule.

Grease-heel.

Clean the parts well with castile-soap and warm water.  As soon as you have discovered the disease, stop wetting the legs, as that only aggravates it, and use ointment made from the following substances:  Powdered charcoal, two ounces; lard or tallow, four ounces; sulphur, two ounces.  Mix them well together, then rub the ointment in well with your hand on the affected parts.  If the above is not at hand, get gunpowder, some lard or tallow, in equal parts, and apply in the same manner.  If the animal be poor, and his system need toning up, give him plenty of nourishing food, with bran mash mixed plentifully with the grain.  Add a teaspoonful of salt two or three times a day, as it will aid in keeping the bowels open.  If the stable bottoms, or floors, or yards are filthy, see that they are properly cleaned, as filthiness is one of the causes of this disease.  The same treatment will apply to scratches, as they are the same disease in a different form.

To avoid scratches and grease-heel during the winter, or indeed at any other season, the hair on the mule’s heels should never be cut.  Nor should the mud, in winter season, be washed off, but allowed to dry on the animal’s legs, and then rubbed off with hay or straw.  This washing, and cutting the hair off the legs, leave them without any protection, and is, in many cases, the cause of grease-heel and scratches.

Shoes, shoeing, and the foot.

The foot, its diseases, and how to shoe it properly, is a subject much discussed among horsemen.  Nearly every farrier and blacksmith has a way of his own for curing diseased feet, and shoeing.  No matter how absurd it may be, he will insist that it has merits superior to all others, and it would be next to impossible to convince him of his error.  Skillful veterinarians now understand perfectly all the diseases peculiar to the foot, and the means of effecting a cure.  They understand, also, what sort of shoe is needed for the feet of different animals.  Latterly number of shoes have been invented and patented, all professing to be exactly what is wanted to relieve and cure diseased feet of all kinds.  One man has a shoe he calls “concave,” and says it will cure contraction, corns, thrush, quarter-crack, toe-crack, &c., &c.  But when you come to examine it closely, you will find it nothing more than a nicely dressed