IRON SHOD BULLOCKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11028, 17 March 1914, Page 1

IRON SHOD BULLOCKS.

NEW ZEALAND CUSTOM IN SCOTLAND. Under the heading " Shoeing of- Bullocks, in , New Zealand" .1 notice m " Smoke-Room Small Talk"-ail interesting* para graph relating" to. the. above. It may interest some ;of your; readers at home or abroad to kiio\v. that, quit© recently the .'writer? had ail interesting chat with Mr Kennedy, the present aged but genial blacksmith of Lawers, Loch Taysire (who is, by the way,, a direct descendant of the ancient Kennedys of Foss, famous armourers from father. to son for hundreds of years). He informed me that this putting on of iron ■ shoes on bullocks was - quit© a common job for'him in his younger days, the cattle being • driven up m droves to the smithy and thus -vhocl, to prevent them turning lame on the long, hard roads along which they vrero driven to the markets in the" south. . " I was shown some or the shoes made by him long ago. ' They appear somewhat broad and thin, yet strong arid heavy enough for the purpose. A set I was presented with surprised me in the number of pieces, that were required for each bullock.—-R. F. Macaulay in the " Weekly Scotsman."