tion as that of two men on or near the driving-seat. The deader the weight, let it be placed as it may, the greater the trial of the horse; therefore inanimate matter is heavier on traction than anything having life.

Vehicles of which the lower carriage and axles are kept braced together by a perch steadying the action of the wheels, are much the easiest on the draught. The Americans are well aware of the advantages of such a construction for encountering the roughness of many of their roads. Not only are all their pleasure carriages, or "buggies," so constructed, but the waggons have a perch that by an admirable arrangement can be detached, to allow of the carriage being lengthened when required to carry timber or other lading. The perch, being in two pieces, can be coupled by the simple contrivance of a movable iron band and pin, giving a freedom, most desirable in a rough country, to the movement of the lower carriage. This contrivance works well, and might with advantage be applied to our military train-waggons and ambulance-carts. Horses cannot but suffer from the present construction of carriages in general use, where the axles are left unsupported and unbraced to encounter the roughness and inequalities of the road.

Axle-Boxes. Proper lubrication of the axle-boxes is too often sadly neglected. Even Collinge's patent will not run freely without periodical aid in proportion to use, and it is no harm to make an occasional examination of the wheels of a carriage when they are lifted off the ground by setters, to see that there is thorough freedom in the working of them, by spinning them round with one's finger against the spokes. The reapplication of gutta-percha or leather washers is essen

tial, as the amount of friction by work will wear that requisite.

For a few days after the washers are replaced, the boxes should not be screwed too tightly, but subsequently they should be re-tightened. The noise of wheels joggling upon their axles indicates want of screwing up, or of washers.

A round tire is decidedly easier for draught than a flat-edged one.

Carriages, immediately after use, should be cleaned, or at least have water dashed over them, to prevent the mud from drying on the paint, which can scarcely fail to deteriorate it, and give it a premature appearance of

wear.

SHOEING.

Some horses are very averse to being shod, through some fright the first time of shoeing, or bad management. It is better to overcome such shyness or vice by gentleness or stratagem than by force of any kind.

Some few animals even require to be cast, or placed under the influence of the painful twitch. Before resorting to any force, however, the following means should be tried in preference to others :-Let whoever is in the habit of riding or exercising the horse mount him when regularly bridled and saddled, the girths being a little looser that if intended for work; ride to the side of the forge, and there let him (his rider still on his back) be shod the first time; on the second visit to the forge, if it be spacious enough, he may be ridden into it for the same purpose.

In shoeing, the smith's rule ought to be to fit the

shoe to the foot, not the foot to the shoe, according to the general practice of those gentry.

In London and all large towns, the best thing a gentleman can do is to contract with a veterinary surgeon for the shoeing as well as the doctoring of his horses.

The night previous to a horse being shod or removed, the groom should stop his feet, to soften them, and enable the farrier to use his drawing-knife properly, and without injury to that instrument.

In shoeing, any undue accumulation of sole may be pared away; judgment must, however, be used in this particular, as the feet of some animals grow more sole than others, and superfluous increase tends to contraction, whereas care must be taken not to weaken the sole of ordinary growth. I am aware that great difference of opinion exists on this subject, but I speak from practical experience of the results of opposite modes of treatment in this particular.

If no shoes were used, the wear and tear of work would provide for the disposal of this accumulation, which, as nature is interfered with by the use of shoes, must be artificially removed.

If the frog be jagged it may be pared even, but the sound parts should not be cut away, and on no account should the smith's drawing-knife be allowed to divide the bars or returns of the foot-an operation technically called by the trade "opening the heels," to which fallacious practice farriers are pertinaciously addicted, because, in some one case of dreadfully contracted feet, they may have seen or heard of temporary relief being given by this process, with the natural result, which they ignore, of the remedy proving itself in time worse than the disease.

If farriers are allowed, they will almost invariably drive as many shoe-nails round the inside quarter as the outside. This is a lamentable mistake, especially regarding the fore feet, as the foot being thus nearly all round confined to the shoe, its proper action is interfered with, preventing a possibility of its natural and gradual expansion in action from the toe towards the heel, as the horse lays his foot upon the ground, with all weight, as well as the act of propulsion, pressed on it.

The reason for liberating the inside quarter in preference to the outside is, that the inside, being more under the centre of gravity, will be found to expand and contract more than the outside, as will be proved by the removal and examination of a shoe that has been in use three or four weeks. On observing the part of the shoe that has been next the foot, it will be distinctly perceived that the friction of the inside quarter of the foot has worn a cavity in the portion of the shoe which has been under that quarter of the foot, while the side that has been under the outside quarter bears comparatively little evidence of friction above it.

This being an established fact, it seems desirable that the full number of nails should be driven round the outside quarter, and not more than one or two (for hunting purposes) on the inside from the toe. (Six nails altogether is the cavalry regulation.)

If your horses are not quick wearers on the road, the fore shoes should be removed within two or three weeks after shoeing (care being taken that the clenches of the nails in the hind feet are at the same time properly levelled to the hoof to prevent brushing), and let them be re-shod every five or six weeks.

In all foot ailments, whenever a horse is lame, although the disease may not apparently be in the foot, let the shoe first be carefully removed, and the shoeless foot examined by as competent a farrier as can be procured (in the absence of a veterinary surgeon), by pincers round the nail-holes, gently pressing wall and sole together, by the hammer tapping the sole, and a judicious use of the drawing-knife, to detect the possible seat of disease.

I have known a lame horse to be brought to a reputedly-experienced amateur horse-doctor, the cause of disease being so evidently inflammation of the sheath of the tendon, that the animal was ordered to be treated accordingly-viz., with cold applications; and this not succeeding, firing the leg was resorted to, after which, the weather being suitable, it was thought expedient to let the beast have a run at grass. As a preliminary the shoes were removed, in the course of which operation a bed of gravel was found to have secreted itself in the foot of the supposed diseased leg, and the inflammation occasioned by the gravel having gone up, caused what appeared to be marked disease about the tendon.

Such were the results of neglecting the precautions here recommended.

Brushing, or cutting, is a very tormenting weakness in the horse, whether behind or before, and often highly dangerous in the latter case.

The ordinary practice of farriers under such circumstances is to rasp away the inside quarter of the offending hoof, as well as doubly thickening the shoe under the weakened wall, leaving the toe to extend itself forward. This is a great mistake, yielding only a tem