25 



give soft food, with a pinch of sulphur added. Both sunflower 

 seed and hnseed meal are valuable additions to the bill of fare 

 during this period. Green food is important. By putting the 

 birds in a warm coop the moult will be hastened. It is generally 

 accepted that it takes a fowl from 90 to 100 days to change its 

 coat of feathers. (4) We give our chicks onions up to two 

 months. We find this vegetable one of the most valuable for 

 poultry, and give it freely to the adult stock. (5) I should ad- 

 vise the separation of the sexes, as otherwise the pullets are 

 liable to come on to lay at too early an age. (6) It all depends 

 on the style of foster-mother used and weather conditions. Dur- 

 ing this month our chicks at one month old have had no foster- 

 mother. 



Your queries have keenly interested me, and I trust my replies 

 may be of some service. — Agricultural Ga.'^cttc (N. S. JV.) 



CAN MULES BREED f 



La Hacienda shows a photograph that says Yes ! How often, 

 we wonder, have all those to do with estate work, either in North 

 or South America, as well as in many other centres, discussed 

 the "whys" and the "wherefores" that prevent a mule from 

 breeding. We have always understood that such a thing is im- 

 possible. Venezuelan llaneros, American breeders, negro over- 

 seers, Spanish hacienderos. East Indian coolies, even Portuguese 

 and Chinese shopkeepers, have all in turn discussed the matter 

 with us, and proved conclusively that for a mule to foal is im- 

 possible. In spite of all this, our contemporary. La Hacienda, 

 of Buffalo, triumphantly includes a photograph of a mother 

 mule and a foal, with these words underneath (see their August 

 issvie, p. 349) : "Mula que dio a luz un potrello en la Hacienda 

 Hortela, Pilar de Alagoas, Brasil." (]\Iule which gave birth to a 

 foal on the Hacienda Hortela, in Pilar de Alagoas, Brazil.) Sur- 

 rounding the two animals, which^ stand side by side, is a crowd of 

 twelve men and bo3^s, and probably there were others that could 

 not be squeezed in the picture. We wonder whether all of these 

 realized at the time how many tongues will be set wagging agam 

 over this evergreen controversy, at the sight of the photograph 

 of this mother and son, since potrello not potrella, is used. 



To further remove any doubt on the matter, we reproduce 

 the following paragraph from the Agricultural Nczvs of Bar- 

 bados, W. I., of a similar case in Cyprus, but in this instance it 

 will be seen that two young mules had made their appearance. 

 This would disprove any claim of the occurrence being a freak. 



Under the heading "A Fertile ]\Iule," our West Indian con- 

 temporary reports that some very interesting correspondence 

 recently appeared in The Field (August 2nd and 9th, 1913) con- 

 cerning the case quite lately observed in Cyprus, of a female mule 

 with foal at foot. The observations were recorded in the first 



