Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/653

 CHAPTER XV.

There are probably few arts which have been known and practised for so long a period, which have been found of such general utility, and yet have undergone so little modification or real improvement as this of horse-shoeing. The earliest model of an iron shoe we can discover differs but little in form from those now in everyday use; and perhaps there are not many arts which have attracted a larger share of attention and experiment by men who had made the subject their profound study, and others who had not, and knew but little of the theoretical principles which should govern its practice. Books have been written by scores, promulgating new methods; patents innumerable have thrown their aegis over inventions