In most cases it will not be necessary to remove much, if any, of the horn from the sole, but there are cases where it will be found necessary to remove quite an amount, or the sole will become so inelastic that it will greatly interfere with the action of the internal organs of the foot. It is evident that nature made the sole of the foot so that it might be acted upon mechanically to remove its surplus growth in the same way as the wall, for in the unshod foot it receives the impact of all sorts of substances, from soft mud to sharp, flinty rocks; and that, too, without becoming dry and brittle.
The bearing surface should be half an inch wide and made positively flat and level, being without lumps or depressions, and not beveled either way unless they are hard and inclined to pinch, when it should be beveled to the outside, so that the weight of the horse when brought upon its surface will cause the heels to open, thereby causing a more healthy condition of the frog. The nail holes of the shoe should be further from the outer edge of the shoe, especially at the toe, than those usually seen in the market. The bearing surfaces of the foot and shoe should be as nearly approximated as possible, else the hoof will be bruised and the shoe soon loosened. The holes being further from the edge, allows the nails to take a deeper and lower hold than is usually given them; the direction of the nails is more nearly across the grain or layers of horn, causing less splitting of its substance, thereby securing a firmer hold upon the foot. Two large nails are usually chosen, 5s or 6s being large enough for ordinary shoes. It is not necessary to hammer down the clinches, if care has been taken to draw the nails, finishing with light strokes of the hammer. The shoes will stay just as long, as we can testify by four years' experience, and the advantages are that the horn is not injured by filing below the clinches nor by the strokes of the hammer during the operation.
Should the horse step upon the shoe, no horn will be removed with the shoe, as is usually done when the clinches are left long and then turned down with the hammer. In such cases, the shoe will be torn off, no matter how solid the clinches hold, and it is better to come away without breaking the hoof. We repeat and make emphatic that the bearing surface of the shoe must not be concave, as it is almost sure to make corns, and induce an inflammatory condition of the foot, and this inflammatory action is the forerunner of the long list of evils that are sure to follow, unless means are taken to relieve the parts. And yet almost every horseshoer in the country gives the bearing surface of the shoe a bevel to the center. Many smiths will deny this, but after they have the shoe ready to apply to the foot, take a square and place the edge across the bearing surface at the heel of the shoe, and ninety-nine times out of one hundred the outside will be the highest.
The front action of a horse may be greatly modified by the weight of the shoe, and here is where great caution, close attention, and a thorough knowledge of the principles involved are required, or one will be liable to throw his horse out of balance if he is used for speeding; for slow work it is better to have the shoe somewhat lighter than the horse might carry than to err in the opposite direction. It is not intended by me to take up all the points of horseshoeing that might be dwelt upon with profit, and no one who reads these remarks will be more ready than I to learn a better method of shoeing than that I now practice, and I sincerely hope that some reader of this paper will favor us with more information on this important subject.—P. D. B., in Wallace's Monthly.
[Milling World].
IDEAS.
By A. Looker-on.
I.
There is yet a good deal to do in successfully applying the roller process to small mills of from 25 to 100 barrels capacity. There has been a great deal done, no doubt, but one thing is lost sight of in all the patents that have been granted so far, and that is cheapness, not only in the price of the machine, but also in its application to the existing or original plant in the mill. It should be of such a nature that as few changes in the machinery as possible should be made.
If a grain of wheat is examined, it will be astonishing to see the chemical laboratory that is locked up in it. The most valuable substances, gluten, is placed near the air and light, while the little cells of the interior are composed of starch, which being the softest is the first to break up under the influence of the rolls. Hence, the flour of the first and second breaks is mostly composed of that substance.
About three and a half per cent. of woody fiber can be removed from a kernel of wheat by a moistened cloth; it is of no value, whatever. The next coating holds nearly all the iron, potash, soda, lime, and phosphoric acid. This wrapper is the granary, so to speak, in which is deposited all the wealth of the berry, and like a good safe is the hardest to open, by either the rollers or burrs.
The use of rolls in cleaning bran is now generally recognized, and they have proved very useful and practical for this purpose especially in large mills. Bran, however, can only be thoroughly cleaned by several operations, and the previous condition of the bran has a great deal to do with the number of operations it has to undergo on the rolls to be well cleaned.