Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

832
S H O —S H O
the heavy and powerful cart-horses' of the present day.
►Shoeing does not appear to have been practised by either
Greeks or Romans; but there is evidence that the art was
known to the Celts, and that the practice became common
after the overthrow of the Western empire towards the close
of the 5th century. It is only recently that horse-shoeing
was introduced in Japan, where the former practice was
to attach to the horse’s feet slippers of straw, which were
renewed when necessary. In modern times much attention
has been devoted to horse-shoeing, with the result of show¬
ing that methods formerly adopted caused cruel injury to
horses and serious loss to their owners. The evils as sum¬
marized by Mr George Fleming, army (British) veterinary
inspector, were caused by (1) paring the sole and frog;
(2) applying shoes too heavy and of faulty shape ; (3) em¬
ploying too many and too large nails; (4) applying shoes
too small and removing the wall of the hoof to make the
feet fit the shoes; and (5) rasping the front of the hoof.
According to modern principles (1) shoes should be as light
as compatible with the wear demanded of them; (2) the
ground face of the shoe should be concave, and the face
applied to the foot plain ; (3) heavy draught horses alone
should have toe and heel calks on their shoes to increase
foothold; (4) the excess growth of the wall or outer por¬
tion of horny matter should only be removed in re-shoeing,
care being taken to keep both sides of the hoof of equal
height; (5) the shoe should fit accurately to the circum¬
ference of the hoof, and project slightly beyond the heel;
(6) the shoes should be fixed with as few nails as possible,
six or seven in fore-shoes and eight in hind-shoes ; and (7)
the nails should take a short thick hold of the wall, so
that old nail-holes may be removed with the natural growth
and paring of the horny matter. Horse shoes and nails
are now made with great economy by machinery. In rural
districts, where the art of the farrier is sometimes combined
with blacksmith work, too little attention is, in general,
given to considerations which have an important bearing
on the comfort, usefulness, and life of the horse.
SHOLAPUR, a British district of India, in the Deccan
division of the Bombay presidency, with an area of 4521
square miles, lying between 17° 13' and 18° 35' N. lat.
and 74° 39' and 76° 11' E. long. It is bounded on the N.
by Ahmadnagar district, on the E. by the nizam’s territory
and Akalkot state, on the S. by Kalhdgi district and some
of the Patvardhan states, and on the W. by S4tara and
Poona districts and the states of Phaltan and Panth
Pratinidhi. Except in Karmala and Barsi subdivisions,
situated in the north and east, where there is a good deal
of hilly ground, the district is generally flat or undulating;
but it is very bare of vegetation, and presents everywhere
a bleak treeless appearance. The chief rivers are the
Bhima and its tributaries—the M&n, the Nira, and the
Sina—all flowing towards the south-east. Besides these
there are several smaller streams. Lying in a tract of un¬
certain rainfall, Sholapur is peculiarly liable to seasons of
scarcity; much, however, has been done by the opening
of canals and ponds, such as the Ekruk and Ashti tanks,
to secure a better water-supply. The Great Indian Penin¬
sular Railway enters the district at Pomalvadi in the north¬
west corner and crosses it in a south-easterly direction, a
distance of nearly 150 miles. Sholapur has recently been
connected with a branch of the Southern Mahratta Railway.
The population of Sholapur district in 1881 was 582,487 (294,814
males and 287,673 females). Hindus numbered 530,121, Moham¬
medans 43,967, and Christians 625. There are three towns with
populations exceeding 10,000 each, viz., Sholapuk, (q.v.), Pan-
dharpur (16,910), Barsi (16,126). In 1883-84 there were 1,763,340
acres under cultivation, of which 22,282 were twice cropped, besides
325,987 acres of fallow or grass land. Joar, which forms the staple
food of the people, occupied 923,706 acres, bajri 298,239, wheat
55,504, rice 25,027, pulses 185,528, and oil-seeds 147,914 acres.
The produce of the district finds an easy outlet by the railway to
Poona and Bombay. The chief exports are cotton, which comes
from the nizam’s dominions, oil, oil-seeds, ghi, turmeric, and
cotton cloth; imports include salt, piece-goods, yarn, gunney bags,
and iron ware. The chief industries are spinning, weaving, and
dyeing. The silks and finer sorts of cotton cloth prepared in
Sholapur bear a good name ; blankets are also woven in large
numbers. The gross revenue of the district in 1883-84 amounted
to £129,429, of which the land-tax yielded £98,963.
Sholapur district passed from the Bahmani to the Bijapur kings
and from them to the Marathas. In 1818, on the fall of the Peshwa,
it was ceded to the British, when it formed part of the Poona col-
lectorate, but in 1838 it was made a separate collectorate. Since
then its progress has been rapid.
SHOLAPUR, chief town and administrative head¬
quarters of the above district, is situated in 17° 40' 18"
N. lat. and 75° 56' 38" E. long., on the plain of the Sina.
Its convenient situation between Poona and Haidardbdd
(Hyderabad), with a station on the Great Indian Penin¬
sular Railway, has made it the centre for the collection
and distribution of goods over a large extent of country.
The town contained in 1881 a population of 59,890 (males
30,410, females 29,480).
SHOOTING for sporting purposes requires in the use
of firearms two fundamental principles on which rests the
attainment of dexterity. These are, first, that the weight Weight
of the weapon be such that the sportsman can carry andof gim-
wield it with ease; and, secondly—of still greater import¬
ance—that the weapon be so adapted to his chest, arm,
and eye that when it is raised and levelled in the act of
taking aim it may be as part of his own body. An over¬
heavy gun may be virtually lightened by being carried by
an attendant and only handed to the sportsman when re¬
quired; but a gun not exactly “fitting the shoulder,” can¬
not possibly serve its user with accuracy. The reason is
plain. The slight divergence of his line of aim from the
axis of the barrel, due to the shape of the gun not permit¬
ting the coincidence of the two when the weapon is used
rapidly, creates a far from slight divergence of the pellets
at any range beyond a few yards, and the object fired at,
if struck at all, is only struck by the outer and weaker
pellets. The increasing wildness of game-birds, in Great
Britain at least, especially of partridges, through the
modern system of cutting grain close to the ground and
so leaving no sheltering stubble, demands rapid aim and
discharge of the gun, and in consequence the efforts of gun-
makers have been directed to the production of weapons
of great lightness combined with power and precision.
How different were the conceptions of our immediate pre¬
decessors is exemplified in such statements as “ a few addi¬
tional pounds in the weight of a gun makes a deal of differ¬
ence,” and “the most approved guns” are those “weighing,
according to the fancy of the shooter, from six to nine
pounds.” The most approved guns now vary in weight by
a few ounces only, and their configuration not by inches,
but by eighths and even sixteenths of an inch. There
are also fine lines in their modelling which, while of great
consequence, are imperceptible to the eye, and can only
be demonstrated by the application of exact and delicate
instruments. Yet each of these lines has an important
purpose, and their combination produces the perfect
weapon. An experienced gunsmith who has studied this
branch of his business can catch the salient lines of a
sportsman’s figure with the eye of an artist, and by the
further aid of tests and measurements can construct for
him a proper gun, and thus lay the foundation of a correct
style of shooting. On the other hand, an unsuitable gun
can only be aimed correctly with slowness, and by some
straining of the muscles of the neck. Under such condi¬
tions correct and rapid shooting is at least improbable;
the spread of the shot alone prevents a complete miss. It
is the correct configuration of the gun which brings into
full efiect the elaborate boring of the barrel, and gives