For these reasons we cannot approve of machine shoes. 2. _Finished Cast Shoes._—They are of four kinds,—ordinary cast shoes, cast shoes with rope buffer, cast shoes with fiber buffer, and cast shoes fenestrated to hold a rubber buffer. Ordinary cast shoes of correct form and proper punching designed by Grossbauer, of Vienna, are sold by Hannes’ Sons, of that city. [Illustration: FIG. 135.] [Illustration: FIG. 136.] [Illustration: FIG. 137. Machine-made (drop-forged) multi-calk fore shoe. _A_, ground-surface; _B_, hoof-surface; _C_, profile.] [Illustration: FIG. 138.] [Illustration: FIG. 139.] [Illustration: FIG. 140. Machine-made (drop-forged) multi-calk hind shoe. _A_, ground-surface; _B_, hoof-surface; _C_, profile.] _Rope Shoes._—These shoes have a groove on the ground-surface, in which rests a tarred rope, which greatly diminishes slipping on smooth pavement. For this reason alone they are extensively used in the large cities of Germany. Since the open rope shoe, when half worn out, will warp, the bar rope shoe is more satisfactory and more extensively used (Figs. 141-144). [Illustration: FIG. 141. Bar rope shoe with bar bent forward.] [Illustration: FIG. 142. The same with bar bent backward.] [Illustration: FIG. 143. The same with beak-formed bar.] [Illustration: FIG. 144. An open rope shoe.] Before fitting the shoe the rope must be removed. After the nails are driven it is laid in the groove and hammered into place. Rope shoes can seldom be fitted properly to hoofs other than those which are healthy and of regular shape. _Fiber Shoes._—These have a groove on the ground-surface into which layers of linen fiber belting have been tightly pressed. The fiber cannot be removed, and therefore the shoes cannot be heated, but must be fitted cold. The nail-holes are placed between the fiber and the outer border of the shoe, and are punched too light. The bearing surface of the shoe is unsupported, so that when the shoe is half worn out, it warps. There is no distinction between rights and lefts. _Rubber shoes_ have all the defects of fiber shoes, and one more. The hoof-surface is covered with canvas, which under normal and acute-angled hoofs wears through under the quarters and leads to loosening of the last nails. L. Rubber Pads. The increasing use of asphalt, tarvia and other hard, smooth and slippery materials for surfacing city streets and country highways has not only made travelling in flat and even in calked shoes precarious, but has aggravated all those injuries produced by concussion. To prevent slipping and the injurious effects of concussion a great many shoes have been devised, in which are incorporated such materials as hemp rope, linen fibre, papier maché, cork, wood, bast, felt and rubber, but all fail in greater or lesser degree to meet practical requirements.