407 
within their boundaries. Yet in the localities where now most used, he has been im- 
proved both in size and quality. Numerous importations have, been made during the 
last seventy years, from Spain, Malta, and other adjacent countries, of the best blued of 
his race, and their produce, bred on the females of American stock, have so improved 
them that we can now exhibit the domestic ass as equal, if not superior, to those of 
any other country. Would time permit, we might even go into particulars, to prove 
our assertion, but it must now suffice to state the fact in general terms. With us he 
is rarely used as a laboring beast, his services being superseded by the mule, as our 
country is happily free from that low class of labor in which his drndgery is needed. 
THE MULE. 
The origin and history of this peculiar animal is almost as ancient as that of his pro- 
genitors, the ass and the horse. He has ever been useful in the industries of the people of 
many nations, both ancient and modern, and to the development of certain branches of 
our American agriculture, traffic, and commerce he is widely appropriated and indis- 
pensable. The early mules ofthe Eastern States were small in size, seldom attaining 
a height of more than fifteen hands, and usually less, yet of great strength in labor, 
endurance, and longevity ; but the western mule has far exceeded him in size, weighs, 
and adaptation to the heavier work demanded of him. Itis now not uncommon to find 
him sixteen, even seventeen hands bigh, with a body in proportion, and frequently a 
comeliness in form exciting the admiration of those who are partial to his employmens. 
His uses in the various labors demanded of him are so well known that it isunnecessary 
to name them; and in comparing him with the mules of other countries, if may be 
truthfully said that the American mule has no superior, and but few equals, and thus con- 
stitutes an important staple of our agricultural wealth. A proper history of the prog- 
ress and present condition of either the American ass or mule has never yet been writ- 
ten for publication other than in detached scraps or pamphlets, yet they are subjects well 
‘worthy the employment of an able pen, and it is hoped that such a labor will be under- 
taken by some one fully competent to its execution. 
AMERICAN CATTLE. 
To give a history of the rise, progress, and present condition of this important de- 
partment of our industry would be to write an elaborate book, the like of which 
was written some four years ago; but it has fallen, I fear, too seldom under the 
notice of those whose interests would be promoted by its perusal, even under its short- 
comings and imperfections. However that may be, I shall briefly, yet as accurately as 
my observation may allow, give some notes and suggestions on their very wide impor- 
tanee. Neat-cattle, in the sense usually understood with us, or, more strictly, animals 
ef the bovine race, were introduced into all our Atlantic States soon after the first set- 
tlers came over from Europe. Those settlers brought with them animals reared in the 
vicinities from which they themselves came, of various nationalities. Their cattle were 
of no particular breeds or distinctive names, that we have learned, but such as served 
the wants of the settlers in the production of milk, the propagation of their kind, their 
meat for food, and their labor for agriculture—animals of a common order only, as im- 
proved breeds in those days had not received much attention in the countries from 
which theimmigrantscame. Anterior, however, to the colonial settlements in what are 
now the United States, the Spaniards had introduced many cattle from their own 
country into the territories of Mexico and further south, and in the broad, luxuriant 
pastures of those regions they muitiplied into numerous herds, with little attention te 
their improvement, as they are now found and known; but of late years, since the an- 
nexation of Texas, New Mexico, and California, they have become quite an article of 
commerce and consumption in other States. £ 
In nearly all the grass-producing or grazing portions of our older States, as the 
people progressed in their modes of agriculture, their cattle, increased and multiplied, 
were usually well cared for,and answered all the purposes demanded of them. In 
some sections of the country they were better cared for than in others, and possibly 
improved in quality over the originals from which they sprung; yet as the settlers, 
after some years, began to migrate to different localities, taking portions of their herds 
with them, the cattle became intermixed with those derived from other nationalities, 
so that in process of time a general intermixture took place, and the name “cgmmon 
cattle ” was only known in their application. This name id now continued to distin- 
guish them from the improved breeds of later years. 
Occasionally, and at different times in the last century, tradition has informed us 
that enterprising men of wealth had imported some choice cattle of “improved ” blood 
from Europe—the names of the breeds not remembered—bnt they were so few, and so 
little attention was paid to their propagation in their own distinct lines, that they soon 
became amalgamated with the common stocks. Yet that the infusion of their blood 
