Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/393

Rh by unskillful shoeing, the concave and plane surfaces have to be reversed. Whatever form is adopted, the shoe must fit the foot, its outline corresponding exactly to its ground-surface. The shoe must be of the same thickness throughout; where calks are required, they should be of equal height, at heel and toe. The number of nails to each shoe, for a saddle or light draught horse, need not be more than five or six in the fore and seven in the hind, but more widely distributed than they usually are. The hold of the nails should be short. The slight scorching of the horn-fibres by the application of a hot shoe has rather the effect of preserving them against untoward influences than of inflicting injury.

Disease often produces changes which require a modification of the system advocated above. In caring for the feet all that is needed is strict attention to cleanliness. They should be daily sponged with clear water, and afterward the parts above the hoof rubbed dry. The unmutilated sole forms in itself the best defense against the extremes of dryness or moisture, and "stuffing" and other artificial measures are worse than useless if the natural sole has been preserved. Placing the animal on a perfectly level floor will promote a sound condition of the feet, and conduce to the general health of the horse.

A Plague of Rabbits ia New Zealand.—Some years ago rabbits were introduced into South Australia from England; later, a like importation was made into New Zealand. Now these rodents are a formidable pest in those countries, and it has become a question of extreme urgency how they can be exterminated. In New Zealand a commission has been instituted by the Government to inquire into the subject, and devise a remedy. Already, though only a few years have passed since the introduction of the rabbits, large tracts of rich pasture-land have been converted into wilderness, and sheep-farming and cattle-raising are becoming impossible. Farmers that used to keep 15,000 or 16,000 sheep can now hardly keep as many hundred. Landowners employ men and dogs to destroy the rabbits, but, though the number killed is enormous, the evil continues without serious abatement. One land-owner inclosed with a stone-wall an area of 10,000 acres, the work taking seven years to complete, and involving an expenditure of ₤35,000. About 500,000 rabbit-skins were exported from Hobart Town in 1874. It is proposed to introduce from England, if possible, several natural enemies of the rabbit, such as stoats, weasels, ferrets, and hawks.

Metric Weights and Measures in Massachusetts.—Below we give the main provisions of a law recently enacted by the Legislature of Massachusetts, legalizing the metric system of weights and measures, in conformity with the laws of the United States. Other States, in legislating upon this subject, will doubtless frame their laws according to the model here set before them by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:

From and after the passage of this act, it shall be lawful, throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to employ the weights and measures of the metric system, and no contract or dealing or pleading in any court shall be deemed invalid or liable to objection because the weights or measures expressed or referred to therein are weights or measures of the metric system; and the metric weights and measures received from the United States, and now in the Treasury of the Commonwealth, may be used and taken as authorized public standards of weights and measures; and these authorized standards shall in no case be removed from the Treasury, except under necessity for their preservation or repair.

The following tables shall be recognized in the construction of contracts, and in all legal proceedings, as establishing, in terms of the weights and measures now in use in the State of Massachusetts, the equivalents of the weights and measures expressed therein in terms of the metric system; and said tables may be lawfully used for computing, determining, and expressing, in customary weights and measures, the weights and measures of the metric system. (Here follow the tables.)

The Treasurer is hereby authorized and directed to procure duplicate sets of the metric weights and measures, conformable to the standards now in the Treasury; of which two sets shall be retained for the use of the Treasurer and his deputy, and from which there shall be furnished one set to the treasurer of each shire town in the several counties of the Commonwealth, and each city not a shire town.

The duties of the Treasurer of the Commonwealth and his deputy, and the duties and responsibilities of the treasurer of each town, with respect to the keeping, care, verification, and use of the standard weights and measures so furnished, shall be the same with