HORSE SHOES. This invaluable animal, the horse, subserves many useful purposes to man, after his career as a beast of burden is at an end. The hair of the tail and mane is much employed for weaving into a tough cloth, and for other purposes. [Hem MANU FACTURE.] The hide is tanned into a valuable kind of leather; the hoof is useful as a horny material ; and various parts of the dead ani mal are employed as materials in different manufactures.
Horse Shoes are implements on which much attention have been bestowed. Nature has given to the foot of the horse a certain degree of expansive or spreading power, which lessens the shock received by placing the foot sud denly to the ground; but the material of the hoof is such that friction will gradually wear it away ; and the difficulty arises, how to pro tect the hoof from wear without destroying or rendering nugatory the elasticity of the hoof. Various contrivances are employed in rude countries to shield the hoof; a covering of strong ox-leather, a wrapper of woven strips of tough fibres, a wisp of straw fastened with a cord—all are used in various countries.
The ordinary English horse shoe is (or ought to be) made of the best iron; and small pieces of steel are occasionally attached to a part which is more than usually worn. The width and thickness vary according to the strength and age of the horse, the purpose for which he is employed, and the particular opin ions of the person who has the direction of shoeing the horse. The horse shoe is formed from a bar of iron about an inch and a quarter wide and three quarters of an inch in thick ness ; and is forged into its proper form by two men. The shoe is fastened on by eight or nine nails, to receive which holes are made in the iron. A sunken groove is also forged, to admit the heads of the nails : this groove is forged by the hammer. It has been pro posed to give the necessary grooved surface by drawing the bar of iron between two rol lers whose surfaces have pins and ridges in serted, by which the groove and the nail holes are made ; it has also been proposed to cast the horse shoes in plaster moulds, and after wards anneal them. The shoes are fastened to the foot by driving nails into the hoof , but as this has a tendency to break away the sub stance of the hoof, modes have been devised for fastening with sandals and straps ; none of these contrivances, however, have been perma nently successful. For heavy draught horses
two points or projections stand out from the back of the shoe and are turned downwards ; these assist the animal in obtaining a sure footing. Horse shoes vary from twelve ounces to seven pounds weight, according to the ser vice required of them.
Within the cavity of a horse's hoof is a wedge-shaped substance called the frog. Far riers used to shoe horses in such a way as to shield this from the ground ; but it is now believed that Nature intended this substance to assist the movements of the animal, by its elasticity.
The subject of the proper shoeing of the horse, in relation to the anatomy of the foot, has been treated with much clearness by Mr. Clarendon of Dublin, in his ' Treatise on the Foot of the Horse ; ' this forms a sequel to another work on the Powers of the Horse ;' and both aro intended to show the means by which the structure of the horse may point out the best modes of practically applying the muscular power. The result of modern en quiries has been to show that the horse shoe ought not to be rigid; that it ought to allow the frog of the foot to come into action. Mr. Bracy Clark has invented a shoe with a joint at the toe ; the design being that it should open at each step, with that joint as a centre. Mr. Rogers' horse shoe has a slit near the front, which gives a yielding elasticity some thing like that of a steel pen. Another horse shoe has been invented with two joints, one on either side. Mr. Turner has devised a mode of nailing the shoe on one side only, so as to leave an expansive action to the foot. Mr. Clarendon has patented a shoe, in which elasticity is afforded by a singular contrivance; the shoe does not differ much from others in shape, and is nailed near the point in the usual way; but all the other nail holes are made large enough to admit of a spreading action of the foot. Specimens of this horse shoe will be sent to the Exhibition.