piece of iron, made almost in the shape of a half moon.  After a fair trial, however, it will be found of no more virtue in curing diseases or relieving the animal than the ordinary shoe used by a country smithy.  Another inventive genius springs up and asserts that he has discovered a shoe that will cure all sorts of diseased feet; and brings at least a bushel basket full of letters from persons he declares to be interested in the horse, confirming what he has said of the virtues of his shoe.  But a short trial of this wonderful shoe only goes to show how little these persons understand the whole subject, and how easy a matter it is to procure letters recommending what they have invented.

Another has a “specific method” for shoeing, which is to cut away the toe right in the center of the foot, cut away the bars on the inside of the foot, cut and clean away all around on the inside of the hoof, then to let the animal stand on a board floor, so that his feet would be in the position a saucer would represent with one piece broken out at the front and two at the back.  This I consider the most inhuman method in the art of shoeing.  Turn this saucer upside down and see how little pressure it would bear, and you will have some idea of the cruelty of applying this “specific method.”  Sometimes bar-shoes and other contrivances are used, to keep the inside of the foot from coming down.  But why do this?  Why not get at once a shoe adapted to the spreading of the foot.  Tyrell’s shoe for this purpose is the best I have yet seen.  We have used it in the Government service for two years, and experience has taught me that it has advantages that ought not to be overlooked.  But even this shoe may be used to disadvantage by ignorant hands.  Indeed, in the hands of a blacksmith who prefers “his own way,” some kinds of feet may be just as badly injured by it as others are benefited.  The United States Army affords the largest field for gaining practical knowledge concerning the diseases, especially of the feet, with which horses and mules are afflicted.  During the late war, when so little care was given to animals in the field, when they were injured in every conceivable manner, and by all sorts of accidents, the veterinary found a field for study such as has never been opened before.

Experience has taught me, that common sense is one of the most essential things in the treatment of a horse’s foot.  You must remember that horses’ feet differ as well as men’s, and require different treatment, especially in shoeing.  You must shoe the foot according to its peculiarity and demands, not according to any specific “system of shoe.”  Give the ground surface a level bearing, let the frog come to the ground, and the weight of the mule rest on the frog as much as any other part of the foot.  If it project beyond the shoe, so much the better.  That is what it was made for, and to catch the weight on an elastic principle.  Never, under any circumstances,